Academic literature on the topic 'Guided waves ; Transducer ; Dry coupled'

The ultrasonic testing technique using Lamb waves is widely used for the non-destructive testing and evaluation of various structures. For air-coupled excitation and the reception of A0 mode Lamb waves, leaky guided waves are usually exploited. However, at low frequencies (<100 kHz), the velocity of this mode in plastic and composite materials can become slower than the ultrasound velocity in air, and its propagation in films is accompanied only by an evanescent wave in air. To date, the information about the attenuation of the slow A0 mode is very contradictory. Therefore, the objective of this investigation was the measurement of the attenuation of the slow A0 mode in thin plastic films. The measurement of the attenuation of normal displacements of the film caused by a propagating slow A0 mode is discussed. The normal displacements of the film at different distances from the source were measured by a laser interferometer. In order to reduce diffraction errors, the measurement method based on the excitation of cylindrical but not plane waves was proposed. The slow A0 mode was excited in the polyvinylchloride film by a dry contact type ultrasonic transducer made of high-efficiency PMN-32%PT strip-like piezoelectric crystal. It was found that that the attenuation of the slow A0 mode in PVC film at the frequency of 44 kHz is 2 dB/cm. The obtained results can be useful for the development of quality control methods for plastic films.

Local wall thinning is one of the major causes for the structural fracture of pipes of nuclear power plants. Therefore, assessment of local wall thinning due to corrosion is an important issue in nondestructive evaluation for the integrity of nuclear power plants. In this study, lasergenerated guided waves were used for pipe inspection, where a laser beam illuminated through linear slit array was used as the transmitter and the air-coupled transducer was used as the receiver. Slits was used in order to enhance the mode-selectivity of guided waves, since the space of slits is equal to the wavelength of the generated wave. The air-coupled transducer detected the selected single mode by turning its detection angle that was calculated from the relations between the wave propagation velocity in air and the phase velocity in dispersion curves. Experimental results for a 4- mm thick carbon steel pipe showed that the detection of the specific mode was useful in the distinction of the wall-thinning thickness in the carbon steel pipe.

For efficient NDE of pipes, essential components of power plant facilities, ultrasonic guided waves were generated and received applying an air-coupled transducer and comb one as non-contact technology. Mode generation and selection were predicted based on theoretical dispersive curve and the element space of a comb transducer. In addition, a receiving angle of the air-coupled transducer was determined to acquire the predicted modes by theoretical phase velocity of each mode. Theoretical dispersive curve was compared with the results of the time-frequency spectroscopes based on the wavelet transform and 2D-FFT to identify the characteristics of the received mode. The received modes show a good agreement with the predicted ones.

This study exploits the feasibility of imaging zones of local porosity/voids simulated by introducing microspheres during layup of a unidirectional carbon fiber–reinforced polymer composite panel. A fully non-contact hybrid system primarily composed of an air-coupled transducer and a laser Doppler vibrometer was used for imaging the local porosity/void zones from the guided wave response. To improve image resolution, several preprocessing techniques are performed. The wavefield reconstructed from the laser Doppler vibrometer measurements was first “denoised” using a one-dimensional wavelet transform in the time domain followed by a two-dimensional wavelet transform in the spatial domain. From the total wavefield, the much weaker backscattered waves were separated from the stronger incident wave by frequency–wavenumber domain filtering. In order to further enhance the signal-to-noise ratio and sharpen the image, the attenuation of incident wave propagation to the damage site was compensated through two proposed weight functions. Finally, a zero-lag cross-correlation was performed for imaging the zone where the compensated incident and backscattered waves were in phase. This improved imaging condition, the “denoised” weighted zero-lag cross-correlation, was proposed and tested for defect imaging in the composite panel with eight intentionally introduced zones of high porosity/voids of varying diameters (1.59–6.35 mm) and depths (0.36–1.08 mm). As expected, the sensitivity of the non-contact air-coupled transducer/laser Doppler vibrometer hybrid system was limited by the wavelength of the excitation signal. The system incorporated with the denoised weighted zero-lag cross-correlation imaging condition for guided wave interrogation gave similar image quality in comparison with that by the immersion C-scan.

The structural health monitoring/nondestructive evaluation method based on the generation and detection of highly nonlinear solitary waves is emerging as a cost-effective technique to monitor or inspect a variety of structures and materials. These waves possess unique characteristics not seen in conventional ultrasounds. Outlier analysis is a statistic tool able to identify anomalies in data that diverge from a set of baseline data. Although outlier analysis has received considerable attention for defect detection using modal data, guided ultrasonic waves, or other nondestructive approaches, its application for the analysis of solitary waves has never been explored. In the study presented in this article, the use of outlier analysis in terms of discordancy test and Mahalanobis squared distance was investigated to enhance the damage detection capability of a monitoring system based on highly nonlinear solitary waves. Two experiments were performed to demonstrate the procedure. In the first experiment, a thick steel plate was probed with a solitary wave transducer placed above the plate, and damage was simulated in terms of a foreign object magnetically attached to the bottom of the plate, at different distances from the transducer. In the second experiment, two aluminum plates were placed above each other in dry contact with the top plate subjected to localized, mostly hidden, defects. The transducer used in the first experiment was in this second test encased in a small cart with wheels to scan the sample at discrete positions. For both experiments, a few features were extracted from the time waveforms and fed to a univariate and a multivariate analysis that compared the testing data to a set of baseline data. The results show that the outlier analysis significantly improves the ability to detect damage using solitary waves.

Efficient and accurate nondestructive inspection systems that save time can benefit scheduled maintenance of aircraft structures. Portable nondestructive inspection techniques capable of scanning larger area structures could find great utility and save considerable time and labor. Contemporary fixed location nondestructive inspection systems, such as the gold standard water-coupled ultrasound imaging by the “squirter” require structural disassembly of the part to be inspected and transportation to/from dedicated location. For large aircraft structures, such as vertical or horizontal stabilizers, this adds weeks to the off-site nondestructive inspection process. An on-site ultrasound detecting method for larger areas, comprising a flexible transducer panel of embedded fiber optic Bragg gratings that is lightweight and portable, and reusable over different structures, is described here. It is shown that this fiber Bragg grating embedded ultrasound transducer panel and readout hardware–software system can map tiny surface displacements of guided wave ultrasound, onsite, over an area of approximately 2 square feet in just over 10 min. The test sample is a sandwich structure with composite skins on both sides of an aluminum metal honeycomb section of an aircraft vertical stabilizer with an artificial engineered disbond. The ultrasound propagation data acquired at 612 positions over the large area, enables in situ nondestructive inspection of defects/ damage by comparing post-damage data with baseline data, and is independent of the material information.

The inspection of rail defects is of importance in high-speed railway operation and maintenance. As a highly efficient method for both nondestructive testing and structural health monitoring of the rail, ultrasonic guided waves (UGWs) inspection provide increased sensitivity to smaller defects. These advantages can be fully exploited only if the complexities of UGWs propagation between the medium of air and rail are unveiled and managed for the given inspection method. The development and validation of modeling procedure for the rail based on coupled structural–acoustic model is presented in this paper. Acoustic–structure interaction between air and rail is simulated based on COMSOL Multiphysics software. The transient response and natural characteristics of UGWs in the rail was computed and predicted. Moreover, the displacement distribution of UGWs in the defective rail and nondefective rail are analyzed both in time and frequency domain. A feasible method for detecting small defects in the rail is proposed in the paper. The results indicated that a defect of 8 mm in rail head can be inspected effectively using UGWs with frequencies of 40 kHz and above. And for small defects in rail web, the X-crystallographic direction ultrasonic transducer should be chosen for inspection.

The present article includes an experimental study of the behavior of dry and saturated dense sandy soil under the action of a single impulsive load. Dry and saturated dense sand models were tested under impact loads. Different falling masses from different heights were conducted using the falling weight deflectometer (FWD) to provide the single pulse energy. The responses of dense soils were evaluated at surface of soil under impact load. These responses include; displacements, velocities, and accelerations that are developed due to the impact acting at top and the displacement at different depths within the soil using the falling weight deflectometer (FWD) and accelerometers (ARH-500A waterproof, and low capacity acceleration transducer) that are embedded in the soil in addition to soil pressure gauges and then recorded using the multi-recorder TMR-200. Based on the experimental test results, it was found that as the sand becomes saturated, the amplitude of the force-time history decreases by about 10-22% since the voids are filled with water which lead to less contact points between particles. Moreover, the resulting vertical displacement due to impact increases by about 20-60% as compared to the case of dry sand at a depth B (where B is the diameter of the bearing plate) from the bearing plate. Such a behavior is related to two compressive waves through the saturated medium; the fluid wave and the soil skeleton wave with a coupled motion of those two waves hence, makes the displacement to be larger in the saturated soil. The horizontal displacement within the soil medium at a distance B away from the edge of the footing are less than the displacements in dry state. The excess pore water pressure increases by about 40% as the amplitude of the impact force increases due to the increase of the contact pressure.

Piezoelectric waveguide transducers possess great potential for the online monitoring of high temperature critical components, in order to improve their operational safety. Due to the use of a waveguide bar, the sensory device is not susceptible to high temperature environments, which enables the long-term service of the piezoelectric transducers. However, the coupling between the waveguide bar and the high-temperature component has been proven to be the most important part of the monitoring system. In order to effectively transmit waves through the junction of the waveguide bar and the monitoring target, it is necessary to research a reliable coupling method to connect the waveguide transducers with the host structure. In the present research, the feasibility of brazing coupling for wave propagation through the junction was investigated through experiments. Piezoelectric waveguide transducers were welded using various kinds of brazing filler metals. The experimental results indicate that the coupling effects of the brazing welding depend on the filler metals. At the same time, some filler metals for the effective coupling of the transducer and the target monitoring component were identified. The brazing coupling method was verified that it can non-dispersively and effectively propagate waves into the host structure with much better reliability than the conventional dry coupling approach. Moreover, the high-temperature experimental results show that the brazing-coupled waveguide bar system can work reliably and stably in high temperatures at 300 °C for a long time. This work strives to pave a solid foundation for the application of piezoelectric waveguide transducers for the structural health monitoring of high temperature critical components.

Transvaginal ultrasound needle-guided ovum pick-up (OPU) and in vitro embryo production (IVP) offer a reliable alternative to conventional embryo transfer to produce offspring. The success of OPU/IVP greatly depends on the number and quality of retrieved oocytes. The aim of this study was to compare OPU/IVP performance from stimulated Holstein cows. Holstein (Bos taurus) >8-year-old pluriparous open dry cows (n = 28) were used for OPU as oocyte donors. Follicular waves in all groups were synchronized by gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), prostaglandin F2α (PGF), and CIDR administrated on Day 0, followed by stimulation treatments 48 h later. No pre-synch was used. Total hormone dosage were administrated as follows: Group 1: pFSH = 180 mg (Folltropin, Bioniche, Belleville, ON, Canada; n = 7), Group 2: pFSH/LH = 500 IU (Pluset, Calier, Barcelona, Spain; n = 7), Group 3: eCG = 1500 IU (eCG, Biogénesis-Bagó, Buenos Aires, Argentina; n = 7) and Group 4: Control (n = 7), no stimulation. All injections were performed intramuscularly (i.m.) twice a day, during three days. OPU was performed 48 (Group 1) or 24 h (Group 2 and 3) after the last injection. The control group received saline solution i.m. Follicles were classified according to diameter in 4 categories: small (2–5 mm); medium (6–9 mm); large (10–14 mm) and extra large (>15 mm). A Mindray DP-30 Vet (Mindray Medical, Shenzhen, China) was equipped with a micro-convex transducer 5.0- to 8.5-MHz probe along with a disposable 21G needle. The OPU flow rate was 15 mL min–1. Retrieved oocytes were classified according to IETS guidelines as viable (grade 1 + 2) and non-viable (grade 3 + 4). The IVP protocol was according to that in Reprod. Fertil. Devel. (2004, 16, 253). Fertilization (Day 0) was carried out using female sex-sorted semen selected with a discontinuous density gradient (PureSperm, Nidacon, Mölndal, Sweden) and diluted to 1 × 106 sperm mL–1. ANOVA was used for comparisons of mean values and a chi-squared test was used for proportions. Results are presented in the Table 1. In conclusion, pFSH stimulation before ovum pick-up in Holstein cows increased the number of collected and viable oocytes, cleavage, embryo development, and hatching rates in comparison to other follicle stimulation hormones and non-stimulation. A cost-benefit analysis of these methods could be valuable in order to inform whether or not a stimulation protocol is necessary for a commercial IVP operation. Table 1.Numbers of follicles, collected and viable oocytes, cleavage rate, blastocysts and hatching rate

The guided wave technique is an ultrasonic technique which is used to monitor large structures in a variety of industry sectors to safeguard against catastrophic failure. The guided wave technique for pipeline inspection has been commercially used since the early 2000s and this facilitates rapid inspection where from a single location over 100 metres of pipeline can be inspected. This technique is currently being used in pipeline infrastructure across the globe. For the technique to be successful it is highly dependent on a numerous of factors including, frequency selection, array designs and pipeline geometries. The transducers used on pipeline are dry coupled and the magnitude of the signal transmitted is dependent on the normal force applied to it. If this force is not controlled the signal being transmitted can degrade and lead to the difficult analysis of a complex signal. In this thesis studies have been undertaken to understand the relationship between dry force coupling of the transducer and the signal received, aligning this connection to classical contact theory. This is then further to extended to the influence surface contact conditions have on the transmission of signal from the transducer. Analysis of the results detected a peak in the operational frequency response which in turn initiated electrical impedance and structural resonance measurements to identify the presence of resonances which are induced by dry coupling. This behaviour was then modelled in FEA software and the validity of the FEA approach was tested against several prototype transducers. This thesis has been funded in joint collaboration between the Engineering Physics and Science Research Council and TWI ltd.

Le contrôle non destructif par ondes guidées générées et détectées par des transducteurs ultrasonores à couplage par air, présente deux avantages majeurs. Le premier réside dans la capacité des ondes guidées à transporter l’information sur la qualité du milieu sur une grande distance. De plus, l’absence d’un milieu de couplage liquide entre les capteurs et le milieu à tester, rend le contrôle plus commode. Ce travail consiste d’abord à développer un procédé de simulation numérique qui prend en considération de nombreux paramètres du système de contrôle. Dans une optique de réduire le nombre de degrés de liberté, un modèle hybride a été développé qui consiste en une combinaison entre un modèle analytique basé sur l’intégrale de Kirchhoff pour la propagation des ultrasons dans l’air et un modèle éléments finis de la propagation des ondes guidées dans le matériau. La mesure des caractéristiques du transducteur à couplage par air (efficacité de l’émetteur et sensibilité du récepteur) permet, d’une part, de calculer la valeur exacte de la pression dans l’air et les valeurs exactes des champs de contraintes et de déplacements dans la structure, pour une tension et une fréquence d’excitation, et d’autre part, de remonter à la tension électrique aux bornes de ce récepteur pour une pression rayonnée par le matériau. Par suite, cette caractérisation rend possible la comparaison entre les prédictions numériques de la réponse (en niveau de tension) du système et les mesures expérimentales correspondantes. A la lumière du modèle numérique développé, une optimisation des paramètres du système de contrôle (angle, fréquence,diamètre, direction de propagation, champ proche et champ lointain) a été effectuée pour améliorer la pureté des modes guidés par le matériau. Une manipulation expérimentale, basée sur un transducteur à couplage par air pour l’émission et une sonde laser pour la réception, a été alors mise en place pour valider quelques prédictions numériques. Ensuite, on a étudié l’interaction des ondes guidées ultrasonores avec des défauts de type délaminage enfouis dans une plaque composite à symétrie quadratique. Pour cela, on a analysé la sensibilité des deux modes fondamentaux A0 et S0 au délaminage en terme de détectabilité. En parallèle, on a traité un problème inverse qui consiste à dimensionner un délaminage par le calcul du spectre fréquentiel du coefficient de réflexion. Enfin, on a mis en évidence le potentiel des transducteurs à couplage par air à ausculter des pièces aéronautiques impactées
Non-destructive testing (NDT) using guided waves generated and detected by air-coupled ultrasonic transducers have two main advantages. First, this non-contact technique without coupled medium allows obvious convenience of use. Moreover, the ability of guided waves to carry information about medium quality over long distance. In this context, a numerical model has been developed, which takes into account many parameters of the control system. In order to reduce the number of degrees of freedom, a hybrid model has been developed which consists of a combination between an analytical model, based on the Kirchhoff integral for the propagation of ultrasound in air and a finite element model for the propagation of guided waves in the material. The measured characteristics (efficiency and sensitivity) of two air-coupled transducers allow the prediction of the accurate values of the pressure of bulk waves generated in air and the measurement of the pressure of the radiated field in air by guided waves propagating in a structure. This process enables the comparison between predicted and measured guided waves modes. Based on the hybrid model, an optimization of the parameters of the control system (angle, frequency, diameter, direction of propagation, near and far field) was performed to improve the purity of guided modes along the material plate. To validate some numerical predictions, an aircoupled ultrasonic transducer is used and oriented at a specific angle chosen for generating one specific Lambmode guided along a composite plate sample, and a laser probe measures the normal velocity at different locations on the surface of the plate. Then, the interaction of ultrasonic guided waves with delamination in acomposite plate was studied. In particular, the sensitivity of the two fundamental modes A0 and S0 was analyzed in order to predict the detectability of the defect. In parallel, the inverse problem is solved and the defect size is quantified by calculating the spectrum of the reflection coefficient. Finally, the potential of air-coupled transducers to examine an aircraft structure, has been demonstrated

Physical Ultrasonics of Composites is a rigorous introduction to the characterization of composite materials by means of ultrasonic waves. Composites are treated here not simply as uniform media, but as inhomogeneous layered anisotropic media with internal structure characteristic of composite laminates. The objective here is to concentrate on exposing the singular behavior of ultrasonic waves as they interact with layered, anisotropic materials, materials which incorporate those structural elements typical of composite laminates. This book provides a synergistic description of both modeling and experimental methods in addressing wave propagation phenomena and composite property measurements. After a brief review of basic composite mechanics, a thorough treatment of ultrasonics in anisotropic media is presented, along with composite characterization methods. The interaction of ultrasonic waves at interfaces of anisotropic materials is discussed, as are guided waves in composite plates and rods. Waves in layered media are developed from the standpoint of the "Stiffness Matrix", a major advance over the conventional, potentially unstable Transfer Matrix approach. Laminated plates are treated both with the stiffness matrix and using Floquet analysis. The important influence on the received electronic signals in ultrasonic materials characterization from transducer geometry and placement are carefully exposed in a dedicated chapter. Ultrasonic wave interactions are especially susceptible to such influences because ultrasonic transducers are seldom more than a dozen or so wavelengths in diameter. The book ends with a chapter devoted to the emerging field of air-coupled ultrasonics. This new technology has come of age with the development of purpose-built transducers and electronics and is finding ever wider applications, particularly in the characterization of composite laminates.

Arrays of dry-coupled thickness-shear transducers are often employed in the guided wave sector to inspect pipelines and plate-like structure. The dry coupling permits to dismiss any coupling material between the transducer and the waveguide, but as a drawback a preload must be applied on the transducers to guarantee an effective coupling between the two surfaces. Although the influence of the preload on the natural frequencies is studied in the literature, the frequency response function of a transducer relating the input voltage to the displacement output is not present in the literature. Moreover, the distribution of force on the backing mass and the effect of the preload on the uniformity of vibration of the transducers are still missing. A natural frequency analysis and a forced analysis are then computed numerically with finite element analysis to quantify the influence of the preload on a thickness-shear transducer. Furthermore, these results are compared with experimental results obtained with a Laser Vibrometer. It is then shown how the geometrical layout of the transducer coupled with the preload influences the vibration of the transducer.

Interest in ultrasonic guided wave based Structural Health Monitoring and a nondestructive evaluation system has grown in recent years, especially to monitor thin plate like structures. However, an effective signal processing and imaging algorithms are essential to achieve necessary performance. This paper describes wave rich laser ultrasonic wavenumber imaging method (UWI) method for damage visualization. Ultrasonic waves were generated by a scanning laser source and acquired using a capacitance air coupled transducer (ACT). However, the inherent existence of multiple Lamb wave modes in signal makes it harder for effective damage evaluation. This is further complicated if the reflections from the boundaries are present in the signal. The use of an ACT with an in-line programmable filter helps to isolate lower order Lamb wave modes (Ao and So), since the dispersive waves radiate at certain angle from the specimen governed by Snell’s law. By comparing the results from the ultrasonic wavefield image obtained using the ACT and a PZT contact sensor under the same experimental condition, mode isolation phenomena was verified. Such isolated wave mode was processed using a proposed wave rich UWI algorithm where a wave rich field was generated by superposing the wavefields. The mode filtered measurements were arranged in 3D space-time domain where each slice in time domain represents 2D wavefield image. A 2D Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) was applied to this spatial information in time domain which transformed it to a wavenumber domain. A wavenumber filter is then applied and inverse Fourier transformed to get back to the wavenumber filtered measurement. However, instead of applying filter to every 2D slice in time domain, certain frames were selected and merged to replicate wave propagation in total scan-area. This wave rich field not only saves time and space but also reduce computational complexity during post-processing. This method was tested successfully in an aluminum plate with milled area damage and a composite fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) wing skin with two impact damages.