Non-contact damage detection on a rotating blade by Lamb wave analysis

Propeller inspection is mandatory for safe operation of aircraft. Damage evaluation on such rotating structures requires dedicated measurement techniques. In this study efforts to create a stroboscopic technique are reported. Lamb waves were excited on a rotating blade with a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser synchronized to the sample rotation, whereas the wave amplitude was obtained by a laser Doppler vibrometer. A surface breaking notch on an aluminum sample rotating at 415 rpm was detected and sized with millimeter accuracy. The technique has potential for automatic non-contacting damage detection on rotating structures such as helicopter blades and turbines.     

An ultrasound method for the acoustoelastic evaluation of simple bending stresses

Ultrasonic waves constitute a privileged tool for investigation in the analysis and characterisation of mechanical stress states. Ultrasonic wave velocities depend on many physical properties of the propagation medium such as the second-, third- and higher-order elastic constants, the volume density and the strain. They also depend on whether the wave is longitudinal or transversal. In this last case, they also depend on the wave polarisation direction.

The present paper deals with the classical acoustoelasticity in stressed and elastically deformed media when they are submitted to bending stresses. A numerical and an experimental evaluation of the resulting change in the ultrasound velocities as a function of bending loads are described. Some results have been obtained on the variation of propagation velocities of the longitudinal and transversal polarised waves as a function of mechanical bending loads applied on samples made of S 185 steel. The acoustoelastic evaluations have been achieved in three zones under bending stress (compressed, central and extended fibres) in the case where the path of probing, longitudinal and linearly polarised shear waves are parallel to the sample axis. As additional investigation on acoustoelastic behaviour on bending load, we propose some acoustoelastic responses simulated numerically on materials of known macroscopic properties.

The experimental study was achieved by means of a measurement set-up composed of an ultrasound bench and a mechanical test machine. In order to measure the variations of the propagation velocity, a correlation technique has been used to obtain an accurate estimation of the propagation time. The velocity measurements have taken into account the elastic deformation of the samples made of carbon steel (C 35).     

3D simulations and experiments of guided wave propagation in adhesively bonded multi-layered structures

Understanding guided wave propagation in multi-layered plates and interaction with discontinuities can be difficult, as well as the interpretation of the ultrasonic signals. Propagation of guided waves can be studied analytically solving the equations of motion with the proper boundary conditions; nevertheless analytical models can be difficult to solve for complex multi-layered structures or having inner discontinuities. The problem can be efficiently studied using numerical techniques. Simulation of guided wave propagation in multi-layered structures, for ultrasonic waves in the MHz range, is solved here with the finite element analysis based on an explicit integration rule to solve the equations of motion in a dynamic analysis. Simulation allows a better understanding of propagation and interference phenomena by creating a window of observation in the multi-layered plate. Numerical results determined for a three-layer Al plate, without or with discontinuities, matched very well with experiments, providing an efficient tool to visualize and extract significant information in the transmitted waves and to optimize wave mode and configuration for a rigorous ultrasonic inspection.     

Inspection of compositionally graded mullite coatings using laser based ultrasonics

Functionally graded materials (FGMs) have spatial variations in composition and structure resulting in corresponding changes in material properties. These materials can be developed for applications in which the functional requirements of a component are position dependent. In this paper, we evaluate the feasibility of using a laser based ultrasonic technique to determine the distribution of elastic properties in FGMs. A model for the laser generation of ultrasound in a compositionally graded coating on a semi-infinite substrate is used to explore the relationship between the acoustic wave propagation and depth dependent elastic property profile. Surface acoustic waves (SAW) generated in such a system are dispersive, and the dispersion characteristics are highly dependent on the mechanical property profile. A high-resolution laser ultrasonic system has been developed, and experimental measurements of the mechanical properties of single layer mullite coatings are presented. Using compositionally graded mullite coatings as a model system, numerical results are reported showing the sensitivity of SAW dispersion behavior to various composition profiles.     

The effect of dispersion on long-range inspection using ultrasonic guided waves

The dispersion of ultrasonic guided waves causes wave-packets to spread out in space and time as they propagate through a structure. This limits the resolution that can be obtained in a long-range guided wave inspection system. A technique is presented for quickly predicting the rate of spreading of a dispersive wave-packet as it propagates. It is shown that the duration of a wave-packet increases linearly with propagation distance. It is also shown that the duration of a wave-packet after a given propagation distance can be minimised by optimising the input signal. A dimensionless parameter called minimum resolvable distance (MRD) is defined that enables a direct comparison to be made between the resolution attainable at different operating points. Some conclusions are made concerning the resolution of various operating points for the case of Lamb waves in an aluminium plate.     

Determination of paper stiffness and anisotropy from recorded bending waves in paper subjected to tensile forces

Experiments and theory for bending wave propagation of paper sheets in tension are presented. An all-electronic pulsed TV holography technique is used to record the bending wave field initiated by a laser pulse. A theory for bending wave propagation in tensile-loaded paper is developed. The bending waves are influenced by mechanical properties such as density, thickness, bending stiffness, anisotropy and also by tensile forces in the paper. The paper stiffnesses are determined by matching the measured deformation field with the calculated theoretical field. The results show that the bending wave pattern is strongly influenced by the tensile force. For a non-destructive on-line measurement of, e.g. stiffnesses and anisotropy in the paper machine the tensile force must be considered.     

超声导波检测技术在电力系统的应用

介绍了超声导波激发的基本原理和导波的传播模式、分类以及导波在输电铁塔锚杆和角钢类型材检测、电站压力管道和小直径管子检测方面的应用。超声导波检测技术具有检验速度快、成本低等优点,能有效地提高检测效率,可广泛应用于电力系统的无损检测工作。     

Application of laser-generated guided wave for evaluation of corrosion in carbon steel pipe

Local wall thinning of pipes, resulting from corrosion, is the major cause of accidents in nuclear power plants. In order to assure the integrity of pipes, a variety of NDE techniques have been proposed. It is well recognized that the utilization of guided waves to detect flaws in pipes has been a very effective tool for long-range inspection in NDE. Since most conventional research on guided waves has focused on long-range inspection, it is difficult to evaluate a defect in a local area. An objective of this study is to develop a non-contact inspection technique for the quantitative evaluation of defects on a local area in a cylindrical tube. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to introduce an advanced inspection system and a new signal processing method for the evaluation of defects such as corrosion in a pipe. In this study, an advanced non-contact method for pipe inspection is proposed, which generates the ultrasonic guided wave by laser and receives it by a dual air-coupled transducer. Information on each directional defect location and length is obtained by using a line scan along a circumferential and longitudinal direction. Received signals are analyzed by using the peak-to-peak amplitude of waveform and the maximum center frequency magnitude of the frequency spectrum. The optimal mode selection of guided waves based on a dispersion curve is also discussed. The experimental results using the proposed method show that the location and the size of the defect could be evaluated successfully in the 2-dimensional scanning images.     

薄板声-超声检测时兰姆波传播模式的有限元模拟

在声-超声检测中,正确认识超声波传播特性是其被有效应用的基础。通过有限元数值模拟的方法,研究薄板中声-超声检测形式下超声波传播模式,对模拟产生的波形信号用二雏傅里叶变换法进行模式识别,并与兰姆波的理论波数频散曲线进行对比,证实产生了多模式兰姆波。使用波场快照图观测了声-超声检测方式下超声波的传播特性。研究表明,将数值模拟方法和试验相结合是研究超声检测技术的有效途径。     

Interaction of Rayleigh surface waves with a tightly closed fatigue crack

A miniature interdigital transducer (IDT) tuned to resonate at 3.1 MHz of frequency is designed, fabricated, and used to generate narrow band Rayleigh waves on aircraft grade metallic alloys. Electrodes of the IDT are precisely machined by a laser machining technique and its acoustical wave properties are characterized by using a scanning laser interferometry system with a spatial resolution of less than 10 microns. Unlike the conventional contact surface wave generation methods using wedges or combs, the biggest advantage of an IDT are its miniature physical size and its high efficiency in converting electrical signals to mechanical vibrations. Narrow band surface waves with finite amplitudes generated by an IDT are used to investigate the wave interaction with a tightly closed fatigue crack on a metallic test specimen. High-resolution images for the time-resolved ultrasonic field and time-averaged amplitude displacement are generated to understand the interaction of the wave with a surface-breaking fatigue crack. From the amplitude displacement data, three-dimensional surface contour plots of the wave energy are generated to find out how the elastic energy interacts with the tight fatigue crack interfaces. Results show that a tightly closed fatigue crack can transmit Rayleigh waves through the crack due to interfacial contact within the crack, where transmission of elastic energy was found to be more dominant towards the crack tip as expected. The sum of transmitted and reflected energy at the crack interface suggests that there is an additional energy loss mechanism which is proved experimentally by visualizing part of the incident Rayleigh wave energy propagating along the interfacial surfaces of the crack and continues its propagation along the surface of the opposite side of the test specimen.     

Modeling elastic wave propagation in waveguides with the finite element method

This paper reports on the application of guided waves techniques to nondestructively determine the structural integrity of engineering components. Specifically, this research uses a commercial finite element (FE) code to study the propagation characteristics of ultrasonic waves in annular structures. In order to demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed FE technique, the propagation of guided waves in a flat plate is examined first. Next, the propagation of guided waves in thick ring structures is investigated. Finally, these FE results are compared to analytical and experimental results. The results of this study clearly illustrate the effectiveness of using the FE method to model guided wave propagation problems and demonstrate the potential of the FE method for problems when an analytical solution is not possible because of “complicated” component geometry.     

基于电磁超声表面波干涉增强的钢板表面检测

电磁超声检测在具有非接触优势的同时,存在换能效率低、信号噪声大的不足。利用电磁超声无需耦合剂对声波传播无干扰的特点,研究了基于声波干涉增强的钢板表面缺陷超声检测方法。在制作了一种用于扫查检测的电磁超声表面波传感器的基础上,搭建了相应的试验平台,对钢板表面人工刻槽进行了检测。试验结果表明:当传感器与刻槽满足一定的位置关系时,超声信号将增强10%~20%。利用此现象进行缺陷评判,可避免分析相对较弱的缺陷回波,为电磁超声检测技术的应用提供了一种新方法。     

Wave propagation in thin Plexiglas plates: implications for Rayleigh waves

Two-dimensional (2D) experimental models are often used to study wave propagation problems. The advantages of using 2D experimental models, as opposed to 3D models, is the reduction of both extraneous reflections and mathematical complexity. Further, many structural elements conform to this geometry. The following study examines Rayleigh wave motion in thin Plexiglas sheets. Source–receiver time domain measurements were made at different locations on the Plexiglas sheet. The time–distance space was 2D-Fourier transformed into the frequency–wavenumber space to facilitate the analysis of wave modes propagating in the Plexiglas sheet. Experimental results showed that fundamental symmetric (S₀) and antisymmetric (A₀) Lamb waves propagated through the plate. Along the thickness of the plate, a non-dispersive Rayleigh wave was generated. Lamb waves were found to interfere with the Rayleigh wave. The assumption of generalized plane stress is preserved if higher mode Lamb waves have low energy content.     

基于声发射信号的铝合金LSP弹塑性波传播规律探究

目的 为提高激光冲击强化(LSP)的声发射(AE)监测精度,结合AE监测技术与LSP弹塑性波理论,探究LSP过程中弹塑性波传播规律。方法 首先,基于弹塑性波理论设计LSP试验,采用AE监测技术实时获取冲击信号,并测量冲击后铝合金7075的塑性变形程度。然后,基于AE信号的时域波形,提出包络欧式距离法,确定对加工质量敏感的感兴趣片段(FOI)。进一步基于FOI,结合实际加工条件,定义了新的累积AE波形熵特征。最后,基于AE信号的多模态和非平稳信息,定义瞬时峰值能量曲线(IPEC),并进一步提取相关特征,从而探究弹塑性波传播规律、衡量传感器优劣。结果 仅包含弹性波的AE信号波形明显区别于弹塑性双波,塑性波传播速度明显落后于弹性波。包络欧式距离法确定的FOI能很好地定位弹塑性波。相较于AE波形熵,累积AE波形熵特征能很好地区分不同程度的弹塑性波。对比弹性波,塑性波主要集中在中低频段(200 kHz以下)。IPEC曲线精准确定31 kHz模态为塑性波的主要成分。进一步提取的峰值变化量 和峰值延迟时间 表明:相较于谐振传感器,宽频传感器对塑性波更加敏感。结论 所提方法和特征分别从时域和时频域上探究了弹塑性波的传播规律,所得的结论为规范和提高LSP的AE监测技术提供了理论支持与指导。     

Defect detection using ultrasonic arrays: The multi-mode total focusing method

Ultrasonic arrays allow a given scatterer to be illuminated from a wide range of angles and hence are capable of extracting significant information about the scatterer. In this paper a general imaging methodology, termed multi-mode total focusing method, is proposed in which any combination of modes and reflections can be used to produce an image of the test structure. Like the total focusing method, this approach is implemented by post-processing the full matrix of array data to achieve a synthetic focus at every pixel in the image. A hybrid model is used to predict the array data and demonstrate the performance of the multi-mode imaging concept. This hybrid model combines far field scattering coefficient matrices with a ray-based wave propagation model. This allows the inclusion of longitudinal waves, shear waves and wave mode conversions. It is shown that, with prior knowledge of likely scatterer location and orientation, the mode combination and array location can be optimised to maximise the performance of array inspections. A practically relevant weld inspection application is then described and its optimisation is discussed.     

Fundamental study of laser generation of narrowband Lamb waves using superimposed line sources technique

In this paper, a laser generated ultrasound technique called superimposed line sources is presented. The technique generates narrowband Lamb waves with a dominant wavelength by superimposing signals of line sources at the pitch corresponding to the desired wavelength. The superposition is performed in software after data are collected so that it permits flexibility of selecting the desired wavelength afterwards. By selecting the dominant wavelength in signals, signal complexity is reduced and the speeds and frequencies of wave modes with the selected wavelength can be determined through dispersion curves. Wavenumber–frequency domain filtering and continuous wavelet transform are used in this research to further reduce the complexity of the signals. Finally, simulations and experiments are conducted to investigate the defect detection ability of the technique. Reflection coefficients are calculated for fundamental A0 and S0 wave modes. Good agreement is found between the simulations and experiments and the result of coefficients with respect to defect and sample dimensions will be shown.     

Numerical and experimental study of guided waves for detection of defects in the rail head

This paper gives insight to the ultrasonic wave propagation in arbitrary cross-section waveguides such as rails, with application to ultrasonic inspection. Due to the geometrical complexity of the rail cross-section, the analytical solution to the wave propagation in the rail is not feasible. A Semi Analytical Finite Element method is described as an alternative yet still robust approach to get the solution of the problem. The free-vibration solution and the forced solution to a laser excitation of the rail head are shown up to a frequency of 500 kHz. The effects of different loading patterns are discussed, and experimental results are provided. The analysis allows for the identification of certain wave modes potentially sensitive to specific types of rail head defects.     

A time-of-flight mapping method for laser ultrasound guided in a pipe and its application to wall thinning visualization

Piping systems in nuclear power plants (NPPs) are susceptible to flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC) that results in local wall thinning of the piping system. FAC can cause severe piping failure such as leakage and rupture. In this study, a reliable ultrasonic time-of-flight (ToF) mapping system in the pipe is proposed with the goal of improving ultrasonic NPP pipe inspection. The system consists of a high-speed laser ultrasonic scanning system (50 mm/s at intervals of 0.5 mm) and two ultrasonic sensors. The ToF mapping algorithm uses mode identification based on wavelet transform, an automatic threshold setting method based on the statistics of the spatial noise map, and two-dimensional (2-D) ToF extraction based on the threshold crossing time method. The Lamb-like waves guided in the wall of a stainless steel (SUS) straight pipe were simultaneously interrogated by the proposed two-channel laser ultrasonic system. The proposed ToF mapping algorithm enabled the generation of a smooth ToF distribution within the beam incidence angle of ±60° in the curved surface of the pipe. Then a ToF mapping method was applied to a wall-thinned pipe, and an ultrasonic wave propagation movie was generated to help understand the complex ultrasonic propagation pattern. Based on an understanding of the ToF change in the wall-thinned region, and on the mode collapse and attenuation that occurred because of the ultrasonic bottleneck phenomenon, the wall-thinned region was evaluated. Since this method allows in-situ and automatic field inspection, it can contribute to NPP pipe health management.     

基于空气耦合超声的激光焊缝质量评估

随着激光焊接技术在汽车及轨道交通上的广泛应用,对激光焊缝的无损检测技术要求越来越高. 针对3 mm以下的两层金属薄板激光焊缝为对象,探讨了空气耦合超声检测技术对激光焊缝检测的可能性. 利用数值解析和试验分析两种方法,在空气中对铝板激励兰姆(Lamb)波,通过Lamb波在激光焊缝试件中的传播模拟,分析了激光焊缝的宽度以及焊缝的良否对反射率及透射率的影响,解明了Lamb波在激光焊缝试件中的传播规律. 结果表明,可以利用Lamb波A0模式对激光焊缝的质量进行评估.     

小口径薄壁管中纵向缺陷的周向超声导波检测

对于小口径薄壁管的检测,通常采用超声水浸聚焦法。该方法灵敏度高、可靠性好,但不适于原位探伤,且检测速度慢、设备昂贵。为此提出了基于周向导波技术的检测方法。在实际检测过程中,观测到一组特殊回波序列,查明了这种回波是由侧向耦合剂液面反射产生,其对保证检测可靠性具有重要价值。通过数值计算,得到管材中周向导波的频散曲线,确定了导波模态,并计算了该导波的位移分布。试验及计算结果表明,该周向导波的能量主要集中在管材的外表面附近,可有效地进行小口径薄壁管的原位探伤,弥补了水浸聚焦法的不足。