G01N2291/0425

RAYLEIGH WAVE POSITIONING SYSTEM (RAPS)

The invention relates to a system which provides a real time update on an estimated positioning of an ultrasonic which is having an ultrasonic generator placed near the inspection probe in the 3D surface, which generates an ultrasonic guided wave travelling along the surface of 3D component and includes positioning more than one ultrasonic receiver probes along the length of 3D component.

Beam forming and steering of helical guided waves in pipe-like and plate-like structures

A method of inspecting a pipe for flaws includes emitting ultrasonic waves, controlling the emission of the ultrasonic waves, receiving reflections of the ultrasonic waves, and determining at least one characteristic of one or more flaws. The ultrasonic waves are emitted in a helical pattern through the pipe from an array of ultrasonic transducer elements. The emission of the ultrasonic waves from the array is controlled such that the ultrasonic waves are emitted at a plurality of helical angles within a range of helical angles. The reflections of the ultrasonic waves are caused by impingement of the ultrasonic waves on the one or more flaws. The at least one characteristic of the one or more flaws is determined based on the received reflections of the ultrasonic waves.

High-temperature magnetostrictive guided wave pipe inspection system

A system for non-destructive inspection of a structure includes at least one magnetostrictive strip, a plurality of coil circuits, a jacket having at least one component layer, and a tensioner. The at least one magnetostrictive strip is configured to be induced with a bias magnetic field and be wrapped at least partially around an outer surface of the structure. The plurality of coil circuits are configured to be disposed adjacent to the at least one magnetostrictive strip, and the jacket is configured to be disposed adjacent to at least one of the plurality of coil circuits. The tensioner is configured to provide a mechanical pressure coupling between said at least one magnetostrictive strip and said structure. At least one of the plurality of coil circuits is individually controllable by a number of channels to at least one of excite or detect guided waves in said structure.

Device and method for detecting defect in main shaft of wind turbine

The present disclosure provides a device and method for detecting a defect in a main shaft of a wind turbine. The device includes: an excitation source, configured to generate an electromagnetic ultrasonic guided wave signal; a nickel strap, magnetized and disposed on an outer surface of an end of the main shaft; a coil, disposed at the nickel strap, configured to receive the electromagnetic ultrasonic guided wave signal such that the electromagnetic ultrasonic guided wave signal propagates in the main shaft, the coil and the nickel strap being configured to transform the electromagnetic ultrasonic guided wave signal propagating in the main shaft into an electrical signal by electromagnetic induction; a signal collector, configured to collect the electrical signal and transform the electrical signal into guided wave detection data and a wireless communication component, configured to transmit the guided wave detection data to a remote equipment.

Detection, monitoring, and determination of location of changes in metallic structures using multimode acoustic signals

Methods for detection, monitoring, and determination of location of changes in rigid structures with arbitrarily complex geometries are described. Implementations include locating acoustic transducers that generate and receive acoustic signals at multiple locations along a surface of the rigid structure, wherein longitudinal spacing between the transducer locations define measurement zones. Acoustic signals with chosen amplitude-time-frequency characteristics excite multiple vibration modes in the structure within each zone. Small mechanical changes in the inspection zones lead to scattering and attenuation of broadband acoustic signals, which are detectable as changes in received signal characteristics as part of a through-transmission technique. Additional use of short, narrowband pulse acoustic signals as part of a pulse-echo technique allows determination of the relative location of the mechanical change within each zone based on the differential delay profiles.

Power supply for electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) sensors
10569301 · 2020-02-25 · ·

An electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) system for inspecting a part includes an EMAT sensor and a power supply for supplying an output power to the EMAT sensor. The power supply includes a DC/DC converter to boost an input DC voltage into a boosted DC voltage, a DC/AC inverter having Silicon Carbide (SiC) Mosfet power switches to invert the boosted DC voltage into an AC square voltage, and an output filter to filter the AC square voltage into an AC sinusoidal voltage. The AC sinusoidal voltage is the output power from the power supply to the EMAT sensor.

Method for detecting defects in a material by ultrasounds
10551352 · 2020-02-04 · ·

The invention concerns a method for ultrasounds detection of defects in a material, including the following steps: emission of ultrasounds from an ultrasonic emitting transducer positioned against to the material at an emission position, acquisition, by an ultrasonic receiving transducer placed against the material at the reception position, of at least one time signal, for each measurement position, determination of a normalisation term from the values taken by the time signal during an initial portion of the measurement duration corresponding to the reception of ultrasonic waves propagated at the surface of the material; for each measurement position, normalisation of the time signal over the measurement duration using the normalisation term to obtain a normalised time signal, processing of normalised time signals for different measurement positions to detect defects in the material.

Network Wavefield Imaging Methods for Quantification of Complex Discontinuity in Plate-Like Structures
20190383773 · 2019-12-19 ·

Network wavefield imaging methods are able to image significantly complex discontinuities or shapes in plate-like structures for superior ultrasonic structural health monitoring (SHM)/nondestructive evaluation (NDE). The imaging provides high-resolution location, shape and/or size images of a structure, and for discontinuities with more complicated profiles. Guided wave (GW) network wavefield imaging methods combine tomography and wavefield/wavenumber imaging algorithms. Metallic plate damage detection uses guided ultrasonic waves and non-contact laser vibrometry. Guided waves are generated by piezoelectric transducers (PZT). A non-contact scanning laser Doppler vibrometer (SLDV) measures the full velocity plate guided wave wavefields. Developed network wavefield imaging algorithms account for multiple-actuator excitations from different angles enclosing the discontinuity, with algorithms using intrinsic wave characteristics such as wavefield, wavenumber, or reconstructed wave energy. Determined locations, sizes and shapes of highlighted areas in wavefield, wavenumber and/or filter reconstructed energy-based images correlate with location, size and shape of damage in metallic plates.

DEFECT IMAGING METHOD FOR LINING ANTI-CORROSION PIPELINE

A defect imaging method for a lining anti-corrosion pipeline is provided, including following steps: loading an imaging excitation signal to the lining anti-corrosion pipeline under detection; acquiring an imaging excitation reflection signal and an imaging excitation transmission signal; obtaining bending mode guided waves of the imaging excitation reflection signal and the imaging excitation transmission signal respectively, and performing time reversal processing on the bending mode guided waves to obtain time-reversed signals; performing excitation reversal on the time-reversed signals to obtain excitation reversal data; performing temporal and spatial focusing processing on the excitation reversal data to obtain a vibration cloud diagram; and converting the vibration cloud diagram into a three-dimensional color point cloud diagram to image a defect of the lining anti-corrosion pipeline. By performing imaging processing, the defect position and condition can be obtained visually and clearly, thereby greatly facilitating subsequent maintenance work.

Shear wave sensors for acoustic emission and hybrid guided wave testing

A system includes at least one circumferentially-polarized d.sub.15 shear ring transducer and a controller electrically coupled to the at least one circumferentially-polarized d.sub.15 shear ring transducer. The at least one circumferentially-polarized d.sub.15 shear ring transducer is configured to be disposed on a structure and to detect at least one shear horizontal-type acoustic emission from damage to the structure. The controller includes a machine-readable storage medium and a processor in signal communication with the machine-readable storage medium. The processor is configured to store acoustic emission signal data in the machine-readable storage medium when a signal amplitude detected by the at least one circumferentially-polarized d15 shear ring transducer crosses a first threshold.