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.

A system for non-destructive inspection of structural components comprising an ultrasonic probe having a contact face for contacting a surface of a structural component to be inspected and being adapted to emit ultrasonic energy into the structural component when the contact face abuts on a surface of the structural component, a thermal imaging camera adapted to inspect a portion of a surface of the structural component to detect region of the surface of the structural component where an increase of the temperature occurs, and a control unit connected to the ultrasonic probe and the thermal imaging camera. The contact face extends in a plane and is provided with at least two bars which are arranged in parallel and have a common separation distance from each other.

A ferromagnetic strip sensor for use in magnetostrictive testing of various structures. In its simplest form, the sensor has a ferromagnetic strip with an electrical coil winding. A permanent magnet is positioned atop the strip, aligned with but offset from, a center axis of the strip. The sensor is operable such that a time varying current in the coil results in a unidirectional guided wave. This guided wave travels within the structure, and is reflected from anomalies in the structure.

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, are provided for nonlinear ultrasonic testing. In one aspect there is provided a method, which may include generating at least one ultrasonic wave to enable the at least one ultrasonic wave to propagate through a solid; detecting the at least one ultrasonic wave propagating through the solid; and determining a stress of the solid based on at least one of an imaginary component of a wavenumber, a wave amplitude, a wave strength, a statistical moment in a time domain, or a statistical moment in a frequency domain of the at least one ultrasonic wave.

The present invention relates to a method for making a device for monitoring the structural integrity of structures such as beams, plates and shells, made of isotropic, anisotropic and/or laminated material, and to such a device. The method provides to define a asymmetric directivity function D(k1,k2) that has, in the domain of wave numbers, a plurality of maxima arranged on different concentric circumferences having center in the origin of the axes. Then a load distribution in spatial coordinates f(x1,x2) is computed by inverse Fourier transform of the directivity function D(k1,k2). Then therefore the device is made with the electrodes, whose shape is obtained by gathering the values of the load distribution f(x1,x2) in the plane having for coordinates the set of real numbers and imaginary numbers, defining at least two sectors of said plane that comprise at least one real value and one imaginary value.

Tube inspections are performed by combining the use of APR technology with GW technology. The reflections measured by both technologies are compared to each other and used to more specifically identify the type and location of a flaw or anomaly that appears in the interior of the tube. Further, embodiments of novel probes to be used in GW technique for inspecting tubes with mechanical waves having bandwidth that is equal to 150 KHz or more are disclosed.

In some example implementations, there is provided a method. The method may include generating, by an air-coupled transducer, a first ultrasonic guided wave to cause the generated ultrasonic guided wave to propagate into a rail being tested for one or more defects, wherein a frequency of the first ultrasonic guided wave is controlled by at least changing the frequency of a voltage sent to the air-coupled transducer generating the first ultrasonic guided wave; receiving, by a receiver, a second ultrasonic guided wave, wherein the second ultrasonic guided wave is received from the rail; and analyzing a signal representative of the received second ultrasonic guided wave to detect the one or more defects in the rail. Related systems, methods, and articles of manufacture are also provided.

Processing signals acquired during guided wave testing A method of processing signals acquired during guided wave testing of an elongate member (2), such as a pipe, in which at least one guided wave (7) is generated in the elongate member, the at least one guided wave is reflected by reflectors (8) in the elongate member and reflected guided waves (9) are detected. The method comprises determining at least one reflection coefficient or a parameter for calibrating a guide wave test in dependence upon reflections from the reflectors which include at least one multiple reflection. The reflections may include a single reflection from a first reflector, a single reflection from a second reflector and a multiple reflection from the first and second reflectors.

An ultrasonic guided wave system for defect detection in a plate-like structure, includes at least one first circumferentially-polarized piezoelectric d.sub.15 shear ring element configured to be coupled to a 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 cause a pulse generator to pulse the at least first circumferentially-polarized piezoelectric d.sub.15 shear ring element such that shear horizontal-type guided wave energy is transmitted in all directions in the plate-like structure, process at least one guided wave signal to identify the presence and location of at least one possible defect in the plate-like structure, and store the guided wave signal and defect detection data in the machine readable storage medium.

The invention relates to a method for detecting defects of at least one metal wire of a set of metal wires, in particular in a cable, the method including: a step of emitting a high-frequency ultrasound signal around a so-called specific frequency in the metal wire; a step of reflecting said ultrasound signal in the metal wire; and a step of receiving the reflected ultrasound signal. The emitted ultrasound signal enables the energisation of at least one high-frequency wave capable of propagating in a longitudinal direction of the metal wire and having a phase velocity that is slightly higher than a compression volume wave velocity in the metal from which the metal wire is made.