Modal decomposition method for modeling the interaction of Lamb waves with cracks

The interaction of the low-order antisymmetric (a0) and symmetric (s0) Lamb waves with vertical cracks in aluminum plates is studied. Two types of slots are considered: (a) internal crack symmetrical with respect to the middle plane of the plate and (b) opening crack. The modal decomposition method is used to predict the reflection and transmission coefficients and also the through-thickness displacement fields on both sides of slots of various heights. The model assumes strip plates and cracks, thus considering two-dimensional plane strain conditions. However, mode conversion (a0 into s0 and vice versa) that occurs for single opening cracks is considered. The energy balance is always calculated from the reflection and transmission coefficients, in order to check the validity of the results. These coefficients together with the through-thickness displacement fields are also compared to those predicted using a finite element code widely used in the past for modeling Lamb mode diffraction problems. Experiments are also made for measuring the reflection and transmission coefficients for incident a0 or s0 lamb modes on opening cracks, and compared to the numerical predictions.     

Compact phase-shifted Sagnac interferometer for ultrasound detection

A compact fibre, phase-shifted Sagnac interferometer for ultrasound detection has been developed. The interferometer is a truly path-matched device, and therefore requires no path stabilization or heterodyning. It is a less expensive and more robust alternative to the heterodyne or path-stabilized Michelson interferometer. The device provides high spatial resolution of ultrasonic detection. It has been used in conjunction with conventional piezoelectric transducers (PZT) to detect Rayleigh and Lamb waves and to image a crack in a thin plate, rivet cracks in riveted plates, and for ultrasonic beam profiling.     

不锈钢折弯板裂纹Lamb波检测技术

金属弯板广泛应用于车辆、船舶、飞机等大型装备结构件中,折弯处易形成应力集中产生裂纹,直接影响构件的使用安全和寿命.该文开展了不锈钢弯板裂纹缺陷Lamb波检测技术研究,计算了钢板的频散曲线,优选3种不同频率的S0模态:0.25 MHz、0.5 MHz、1 MHz.利用COMSOL仿真软件建立频域仿真模型,模拟了Lamb波...     

Study on probability of detection for fatigue cracks in sonic infrared imaging

Detection reliability of sonic infrared imaging is one of the increasingly important aspects for out of lab applications. And for the detection reliability evaluation, probability of detection (POD) for different defects under given test conditions has been successfully used as an accepted quantitative measurement. In this study, we test a set of C45 ferritic steel plates with artificial fatigue cracks. Experimental results show that the crack heating response increases with the increasing crack length, and the relationship between the logarithmic form of heat response signal and the crack length appears to be linear. Based on the above statistic characteristics, the linear regression analysis and the Wald method are adopted to estimate the POD function and its confidence interval. The study aims to provide a quantitative evaluation method for detection reliability in sonic infrared imaging.     

超声红外热像技术及其在无损评价中的应用

本介绍在光热红外检测的基础上发展的超声红外热像技术。该技术利用超声脉冲作为激发源，当超声脉冲在试样上传播的过程中遇到裂纹等缺陷时，缺陷引起超声附加衰减而局部升温。利用红外照相机获取试样表面的温度分布，可显示裂纹等缺陷。超声红外热像技术发挥了超声和红外技术的优点，可实时地检测裂纹等缺陷，在无损评价和检测中有广泛应用。     

An ultrasonic method for dynamic monitoring of fatigue crack initiation and growth

Attached ultrasonic sensors can detect changes caused by crack initiation and growth if the wave path is directed through the area of critical crack formation. Dynamics of cracks opening and closing under load cause nonlinear modulation of received ultrasonic signals, enabling small cracks to be detected by stationary sensors. A methodology is presented based upon the behavior of ultrasonic signals versus applied load to detect and monitor formation and growth of cracks originating from fastener holes. Shear wave angle beam transducers operating in through transmission mode are mounted on either side of the hole such that the transmitted wave travels through the area of expected cracking. Time shift is linear with respect to load, and is well explained by path changes due to strain combined with wave speed changes due to acoustoelasticity. During subsequent in situ monitoring with unknown loads, the measured time of flight is used to estimate the load, and behavior of the received energy as a function of load is the basis for crack detection. Results are presented from low cycle fatigue tests of several aluminum specimens and illustrate the efficacy of the method in both determining the applied load and monitoring crack initiation and growth.     

Experimental investigations of the response of a cracked rotor to periodic axial excitation

In this paper, the coupling of lateral and longitudinal vibrations due to the presence of transverse surface crack in a rotor is explored. A crack in a rotor is known to introduce coupling between lateral and longitudinal vibrations. Steady state unbalance response of a cracked rotor with a single centrally situated crack subjected to periodic axial impulses is investigated experimentally. The cracked rotor is excited axially using an electrodynamic exciter at a frequency equal to its bending natural frequency in both non-rotating and rotating conditions. The resulting time domain and frequency domain signals of the cracked rotor are studied. Spectral response of the cracked rotor with and without axial excitation is found to be distinctively different. When excited axially, it shows prominent presence of rotor bending natural frequency. However for an uncracked rotor, the response is similar with or without axial excitation. It is thus proposed that the response of the rotor to axial impulse excitation could be used for more reliable diagnosis of rotor cracks.     

Nonlinear ultrasonic imaging method for closed cracks using subtraction of responses at different external loads

To improve the selectivity of closed cracks for objects other than cracks in ultrasonic imaging, we propose an extension of a novel imaging method, namely, subharmonic phased array for crack evaluation (SPACE) as well as another approach using the subtraction of responses at different external loads. By applying external static or dynamic loads to closed cracks, the contact state in the cracks varies, resulting in an intensity change of responses at cracks. In contrast, objects other than cracks are independent of external load. Therefore, only cracks can be extracted by subtracting responses at different loads. In this study, we performed fundamental experiments on a closed fatigue crack formed in an aluminum alloy compact tension (CT) specimen using the proposed method. We examined the static load dependence of SPACE images and the dynamic load dependence of linear phased array (PA) images by simulating the external loads with a servohydraulic fatigue testing machine. By subtracting the images at different external loads, we show that this method is useful in extracting only the intensity change of responses related to closed cracks, while canceling the responses of objects other than cracks.     

Fractoluminescence of poly(phenylene sulfide) and a fiber composite on its basis

The object of investigation is fractoluminescence induced by the blow of a steel striker on plates made of poly(phenylene sulfide) and carbon-iber-einfor ced poly(phenylene sulfide). It is found that fractoluminescence shows up as a series of bursts several tens of microseconds long. Simultaneously, microcracks develop on the surface. It is assumed that the bursts are caused by microcracking. The linear size of the cracks is estimated to vary from 0.2 to 10.0 fum. The crack size distribution obeys a power law. In the composite, the amount of cracks is an order of magnitude smaller than in the poly(phenylene sulfide) and the crack size distribution is somewhat broader because of a larger fraction of large cracks.     

Modal analysis of circular plates with radial side cracks and in contact with water on one side based on the Rayleigh–Ritz method

In this paper, free vibrations of the baffled circular plates with radial side cracks and in contact with water on one side are investigated based on the Rayleigh–Ritz method. The completely free, simply supported and completely clamped boundary conditions are considered. Corner functions are introduced to describe the singularities at the crack tip. The motion of water is expressed by the velocity potential and the interaction between the water and the plate is derived in the form of an integral equation including the dynamic deformation of the cracked plate. The convergence studies are carried out and the numerical results show that the distinctions between the dry and wet mode shapes will be increased obviously excluding the first symmetric and antisymmetric modes when cracks appear. When the approximate methods based on the assumption that the wet modes are identical with the dry modes are adopted to calculate the eigenfrequencies, the errors of the results for cracked circular plates are larger than those for intact ones. The influences of the water on the symmetric and antisymmetric modes are different evidently, and the greatest reduction ratio of eigenfrequency and least difference between dry and wet mode are relative to the first symmetric mode. The verifications based on numerical simulation show that the proposed method is adequate for the investigation of free vibration of baffled circular plates with radial side cracks and in contact with water on one side.     

Cooling analysis of welded materials for crack detection using infrared thermography

Infrared thermography offers a wide range of possibilities for the detection of flaws in welding, being the main difference among them the thermal excitation of the material. This paper analyzes the application of an inexpensive and versatile thermographic test to the detection of subsurface cracks in welding. The procedure begins with the thermal excitation of the material, following with the monitoring of the cooling process with IRT (InfraRed Thermography). The result is a sequence of frames that enables the extraction of thermal data, useful for the study of the cooling tendencies in the defect and the non-defect zone. Then, each image is subjected to a contour lines algorithm towards the definition of the morphology of the detected defects. This combination of data acquisition and processing allows the differentiation between two types of cracks: toe crack and subsuperficial crack, as defined in the quality standards.     

Effect of driving frequency on non-linear coupling between ultrasound transducer and target under inspection in Sonic Infrared Imaging

Sonic Infrared (IR) Imaging, also referred as vibrothermography, is a novel Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) technology to find cracks through infrared imaging of vibration-induced crack heating. The vibration source plays an important role in the detection of cracks. In this paper, the effect of driving frequency on the ultrasound vibration to the thermal imaging is presented. The research is organized by using different frequency system and coupling materials on the same aluminum bar sample. The analysis is conducted by combination of the vibration waveforms with the IR images and signals. Correlation analysis between the acoustic energy and the thermal energy in the crack is discussed as well.     

Detecting damage in vibrating structures with a scanning LDV

It has been demonstrated, through experiments on laboratory-scale structures, that structural defects such as cracks can be detected and located using a continuously scanning laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) if vibration sufficient to flex the defect can be induced and if the defects are such as to produce localised mode shape discontinuities. This paper describes such a method of defect detection using a short linear scan at the crack location. Through-cracks are easily detected in thin metal plates whereas narrow slots in a solid cantilever beam have no easily identifiable effect unless they extend more than half-way through the thickness. Cracks in a reinforced-concrete beam introduced marked and identifiable discontinuities in mode shapes. Speckle noise affects the measurements, sometimes seriously. A simple low-pass filter may improve the signal quality.     

Phonon spectrum and related thermodynamic properties of microcrack in bcc-Fe

The phonon spectrum and the related thermodynamic properties of microcracks in bcc-Fe are studied with the recursion method by using the Finnis--Sinclair (F--S) N-body potential. The initial configuration of the microcracks is established from an anisotropic linear elastic solution and relaxed to an equilibrium by molecular dynamics method. It is shown that the local vibrational density of states of the atoms near a crack tip is considerably different from the bulk phonon spectrum, which is closely associated with the local stress field around the crack tip; meanwhile, the local vibrational energies of atoms near the crack tip are higher than those of atoms in a perfect crystal. These results imply that the crack tip zone is in a complex stress state and closely related to the structure evolution of cracks. It is also found that the phonon excitation is a kind of local effect induced by microcracks. In addition, the microcrack system has a higher vibrational entropy, which reflects the character of phonon spectrum related to the stress field induced by cracks.     

Dynamic caustics and its applications

For the study of elastodynamic problems of propagating cracks it is necessary to evaluate the dynamic stress intensity factor K^d_I which depends on the form of expressions for the stress components existing at the running crack tip at any instant of the propagation of the crack and the corresponding dynamic mechanical and optical properties of the material of the specimen under identical loading conditions. In this paper the distortion of the form of the corresponding reflected caustic from the lateral faces of a dynamically loaded transparent and optically inert specimen containing a transverse crack running under constant velocity was studied on the basis of complex potential elasticity theory and the influence of this form on the value of the dynamic stress intensity factor was given. The method was applied to the study of a propagating Mode I crack in a PMMA specimen under various propagation velocities and the corresponding dynamic stress intensity factor K^d_I evaluated. Also, crack propagation behaviour of notched composites in dynamic loading modes are reviewed and evaluated. A relatively large data base using metal-epoxy particulates, rubber-toughened poly(methyl methacrylate), and Sandwich plates are given. In all cases, a combination of high-speed photography and the optical method of dynamic caustics has been used. Results on the dynamic crack propagation mode, fracture toughness and crack propagation velocities of several rubber-modified composite models are presented. The composite models studied include specimens with one and/or two ‘complex’ two-stage inclusions, i.e. PMMA round inclusions surrounded by concentric rubber rings, one and/or press-fifting inclusions without rubber interface, all under dynamic loading. In all cases both qualitative and quantitative results were obtained. Also, results on crack propagation mode, crack propagation velocity, stress intensity factors and on the influence of the sandwich phases on crack propagation mode are presented.     

Fracture mechanics of propagating 3-D fatigue cracks with parametric dislocations

Abstract

Propagation of 3-D fatigue cracks is analyzed using a discrete dislocation representation of the crack opening displacement. Three dimensional cracks are represented with Volterra dislocation loops in equilibrium with the applied external load. The stress intensity factor (SIF) is calculated using the Peach–Koehler (PK) force acting on the crack tip dislocation loop. Loading mode decomposition of the SIF is achieved by selection of Burgers vector components to correspond to each fracture mode in the PK force calculations. The interaction between 3-D cracks and free surfaces is taken into account through application of the superposition principle. A boundary integral solution of an elasticity problem in a finite domain is superposed onto the elastic field solution of the discrete dislocation method in an infinite medium. The numerical accuracy of the SIF is ascertained by comparison with known analytical solution of a 3-D crack problem in pure mode I, and for mixed-mode loading. Finally, fatigue crack growth simulations are performed with the Paris law, showing that 3-D cracks do not propagate in a self-similar shape, but they re-configure as a result of their interaction with external boundaries. A specific numerical example of fatigue crack growth is presented to demonstrate the utility of the developed method for studies of 3-D crack growth during fatigue.     

多通道超声兰姆波检测板状结构中的裂纹

超声兰姆(Lamb)波在结构缺陷检测方面愈来愈受到重视,但目前Lamb波的应用局限于单信号源激励,单通道接收的方法,容易受到噪声干扰,其后续的信号分析处理也比较复杂。本文旨在采用多通道Lamb波对板状结构中的裂纹进行定量分析与诊断。在铝板的表面凿刻出不同深度的凹槽作为裂纹,通过线阵换能器采集在一定传播距离内的多通道Lamb波信号,并采用二维傅里叶变换分析在不同深度的裂纹下,Lamb波模式能量的变化规律。结果表明,相对于完好铝板中的Lamb波信号,裂纹的存在会使Lamb波发生模式转换现象,并且转换模式能量百分比随裂纹深度的增加而线性增加。其结果为Lamb波评价板状结构中的裂纹状况提供了一种可能的方法。     

The interaction between a screw dislocation and an interfacial cruciform crack and collinear linear cracks

The interaction between a screw dislocation and an interfacial cruciform crack and collinear linear cracks under loads at infinity was investigated. General solutions of complex potentials to this problem were derived by using complex potential theory. As illustrative examples, the closed form solution for a screw dislocation interacting with an interfacial cruciform crack and a linear crack is obtained. The stress intensity factor and critical stress intensity factor for dislocation emission are also calculated. The results show that the shielding effect increases with the increase of the shear modulus and the distance between the two cracks, but it decreases with the increase of dislocation azimuth and the distance between the dislocation and the cruciform crack tip. The critical loads at infinity for dislocation emission increase with the increment of the emission angle, the distance the two cracks and the vertical length of the cruciform crack.     

Detection of cracks at rivet holes using guided waves

Guided Lamb waves can be used for a fast inspection of large areas, e.g. the detection of cracks at rivet holes in the fuselage of airplanes. When the guided wave hits a discontinuity like a hole, a typical scattered displacement field is obtained. A change of the scattered field indicates the development of a crack. In the experiments, the first anti-symmetric mode A0 of Lamb waves in plates is excited selectively by means of a piezoelectric transducer. The used frequency range is below the cut-off frequencies of higher wave modes. The scattered field around undamaged and damaged holes is measured on a grid around the hole with a heterodyne laser interferometer. Two types of damage are introduced: a notch cut with a very fine saw blade, and a fatigue grown crack. A significant change in the scattered field due to the defect is seen. Good agreement of the experimental results with theoretical calculations is obtained. The wave propagation is studied using Mindlin's theory of plates. The scattered field is calculated analytically and using finite difference methods (FDMs).