Hybrid laser/broadband EMAT ultrasonic system for characterizing cracks in metals

Detection and characterization of defects in metal parts in industrial and commercial settings has typically been carried out by nondestructive ultrasonic inspection systems. Correct measurement of crack size is critical for lifetime prediction inspections. Normally, measurements are made based on far-field ultrasonic diffraction models and time-of-flight reflection signals making accurate measurements for parts less than approximately 25 mm in thickness impossible. In this work a hybrid noncontacting laser generation/broadband electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) detection system is used to characterize ideal cracks in aluminum in which the far-field condition for ultrasonic diffraction cannot be met. Time domain signals show that diffracted energy is measured in the geometrical shadow zone of the crack. Fourier transform methods are used to show that the frequency content of the diffracted signals is different than those from the waves that do not interact with the crack. Crack size measurements are made by using the frequency content of the ultrasonic signal rather than time-of-flight information.     

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。     

典型深海声场频率-距离干涉结构分析及实验研究

基于射线理论分析了在典型深海情况下声源与接收水听器位于海水表层时声场频率-距离干涉结构,给出了直达声作用区与影区情况下声场频率-距离干涉结构的近似理论表达式。数值仿真与实验结果表明:在直达声作用区内,由直达声与海面一次反射声形成声场干涉结构,频率域干涉周期为该两条声线到达时间差的倒数;在影区内,由声源-海底-接收器、声源-海面-海底-接收器、声源-海底-海面-接收器和声源-海面-海底-海面-接收器四条声线形成声场干涉结构,声强随着频率具有两种干涉周期,分别随着声源深度、接收水听器深度的增大而减小,并与收发距离有关。本文给出的理论表达式可以较好的解释实验观测到的声场频率-距离干涉结构。      

特殊几何构件超声衍射时差法技术有限元模拟

衍射时差法(Time of flight diffraction,TOFD)技术是一种能够探测和精确测量缺陷尺寸的新型超声无损检测方法,针对该检测方法具有缺陷检出率高、缺陷定位定量精度高等优点。本文采用商业有限元软件ABAQUS,对汽包筒体与球形封头不等厚对接和超高压水晶釜两种特殊几何构件进行了超声TOFD技术的二维数值模拟研究,分析了超声波在这两种构件中的传播特性和规律。经分析从构件表面不同位置接收到的波型,当构件中存在损伤时,通过接收损伤所引起的衍射波,可判断构件中是否存在缺陷。模拟结果表明能够将超声TOFD技术应用于这两种特殊结构的压力容器构件,可扩大超声TOFD技术的应用范围。     

闭合裂纹非共线混频超声检测试验研究

针对结构中微裂纹检测难题,发展了一种闭合裂纹非共线混频超声检测方法。在对非共线混频超声检测机理分析基础上,进行了结构中疲劳裂纹混频非线性超声检测实验。对有无裂纹试件中检测信号进行了滤波和时频分析,结果表明,可根据信号滤波后时域波形中是否存在明显的混频波包或时频分析中是否存在明显的和频分量,实现有无闭合裂纹的判识;通过移动激励探头的位置,控制两列入射声波在试件中的交汇位置,实现试件中不同深度位置的混频非线性检测。并根据测得的混频非线性系数沿试件深度方向上分布,实现了闭合裂纹沿深度方向上长度的测量。研究工作为结构中微裂纹定量评价做了有益探索。      

超声导波评价长骨骨折的仿体实验研究

定量超声评价长骨骨折已成为近年来的研究热点之一,超声导波模式转换理论可被应用于长骨骨折状况的评价。采用三维时域有限差分法分析骨折长骨中导波模式转换的基本规律,提取模式转换定量评价参数;进而结合亚克力管仿体实验,分析不同裂纹程度下导波模式的转换情况。仿真与仿体实验表明,导波模式能量参数与裂纹程度具有很好的相关性,可用于评价长骨骨折状况。     

An acoustic imaging system of migration technique used in borehole

In order to detect the damage of casing boreholes, an acoustic imaging method with a two-dimensional ultrasonic array was presented. Each element of the array independently emits down ultrasonic waves, the echoes received by all elements are sampled and transmitted to a computer on ground surface, where the dynamic migration method is used to form a 2 or 3-dimensional image of the situation in the borehole. The numerical simulation and experiment are conducted that demonstrate a high imaging accuracy with a small number of elements used in array. Since the delay circuits used in the traditional phased array imaging system is not needed in this system, and all data process could be completed in a ground system. the complexity and the volume of system in borehole may be significantly simplified, which is critical to the borehole instrument.     

Influences of interfacial damage on the effective wave velocity in composites with reinforced particles

The scattering of elastic waves by a spherical particle with imperfect interface and the multiple scattering by many spherical particles with imperfect interface are studied in this paper. First, the scattering of elastic waves by a spherical particle with imperfect interface, i.e. spring interface model, is studied. Then, the multiple scattering by random distributed particles with interfacial damage in a composite material is investigated. The equations to evaluate velocity and attenuation of effective waves defined by statistic averaging are given. Furthermore, based on the established relation between the effective velocity and interfacial constants, a method to evaluate the interfacial damage nondestructively from the ultrasonic measure data is proposed. The numerical simulation is performed for the Sic-Al composites. The effective velocity is computed to show the influences of interface damage. By using the genetic algorithm, the interfacial damage is evaluated from the synthetic experimental data with various levels of error. The numerical results show the feasibility of the method proposed to approximately evaluate the interfacial damage in a composite material with reinforced particles based on ultrasonic data. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 10672019 and 10272003)     

纵向带状裂隙形貌的逆时偏移超声成像

传统的工业超声成像方法通常只能确定缺陷的位置与横向尺寸,无法获得缺陷的形貌信息.一些特殊的缺陷,如纵向裂纹,是典型的例子.基于多阵元技术,开展了固体介质缺陷逆时偏移超声成像方法的数值与实验研究.针对铝块平底纵裂纹及内部纵裂纹两种传统方法无法有效成像的缺陷,首先开展了单分量逆时偏移成像方法研究,给出了基于数值仿真的逆时偏移成像结果以及基于多阵元超声成像实验系统实验测试的逆时偏移成像结果.进一步开展了基于多分量位移检测与转换横波分离的逆时偏移成像方法研究,并提出了基于新型多分量激光干涉仪进行检测的思路.数值仿真结果证实了多分量逆时偏移图像重建结果可以克服单分量方式的缺点,得到明显优于单分量检测时的图像.     

岩石Hopkinson层裂的流形元法模拟

 利用二阶流形元法,通过引入裂纹产生及扩展判据,对冲击载荷作用下岩石Hopkinson动态层裂过程进行了数值模拟,再现了拉伸波作用下Hopkinson层裂过程,计算得到的层裂片厚度和速度等与理论值符合较好,验证了流形元法在模拟冲击载荷作用下材料动态破坏过程方面的有效性和优越性。     

3D analysis of interaction of Lamb waves with defects in loaded steel plates

The objective of the research presented here is the investigation of the interaction of guided waves with welds, defects and other non-uniformities in steel plates loaded by liquid. The investigation has been performed using numerical simulation for 2D and 3D cases by the finite differences method, finite element method and measurement of 3D distributions of acoustic fields. Propagation of the S(0) mode in a steel plate and its interaction with non-uniformities was investigated. It was shown that using the measured leaky wave signals in the water loading of the steel plate and by application of signal processing, the 3D ultrasonic field structure inside and outside of the plate can be reconstructed. The presence of leaky wave signals over the defect caused by the mode conversion of Lamb waves has been proved using the numerical modelling and experimental investigations. The developed signal and data processing enables to visualise dynamics of ultrasonic fields over the plate, and also to estimate spatial positions of defects inside the steel plates.     

振动声调制技术下微裂纹的非线性响应分析

采用非线性弹簧模型对振动声调制技术下微裂纹产生的非线性调制效应进行解释。从理论上分析了振动声调制技术下微裂纹产生非线性调制现象的原理,将微裂纹的开合状态等效为非线性弹簧。利用有限元软件构建并仿真微裂纹非线性弹簧模型,分别观察不同激励下裂纹界面的开合状态及混合声波的传播特性。结果表明,微裂纹界面随低频声波呈周期性开合,使得通过裂纹界面的高频声波与低频声波相互调制而产生非线性现象。在以上研究基础上,开展振动声调制实验研究。对比仿真结果,非线性调制系数R在实验条件下和仿真随低频激励幅值的变化趋势相同,证明了该模型的正确性。该模型为振动声调制技术应用于微裂纹的超声非线性检测提供了理论依据。      

Finite element modeling of heating phenomena of cracks excited by high-intensity ultrasonic pulses

A three-dimensional thermo-mechanical coupled finite element model is built up to simulate the phenomena of dynamical contact and frictional heating of crack faces when the plate containing the crack is excited by high-intensity ultrasonic pulses.In the finite element model,the high-power ultrasonic transducer is modeled by using a piezoelectric thermal-analogy method,and the dynamical interaction between both crack faces is modeled using a contact-impact theory.In the simulations,the frictional heating taking place at the crack faces is quantitatively calculated by using finite element thermal-structural coupling analysis,especially,the influences of acoustic chaos to plate vibration and crack heating are calculated and analysed in detail.Meanwhile,the related ultrasonic infrared images are also obtained experimentally,and the theoretical simulation results are in agreement with that of the experiments.The results show that,by using the theoretical method,a good simulation of dynamic interaction and friction heating process of the crack faces under non-chaotic or chaotic sound excitation can be obtained.     

Numerical simulation of the ultrasonic waves generated by ring-shaped laser illumination patterns

The generation of ultrasound in aluminum plate subjected to ring-shaped laser beam illumination has been studied quantitatively by using the finite element method. The superposition effects of surface acoustic waves on the top surface and the bulk ultrasonic waves on the rear surface of specimen have been obtained in a single simulation. The typical displacement profiles of the bulk ultrasonic wave at various depths along the central axis of the ring are obtained for three different radii, and the effect of the ring radius on the focal depths of the compression and shear mode are determined. The numerical results confirm that the focal depth of a bulk acoustic mode is determined by the directivity patterns of the acoustic mode generated by point-like laser sources via a thermoelastic mechanism, which depends on the physical constants of elastic medium.     

Surface wave transmission measurements across distributed surface-breaking cracks using air-coupled sensors

Near-field scattering of surface waves by a single surface-breaking crack in solid medium has been well investigated by prior researchers. However, there have been few studies for more realistic problems involving near scattering of surface waves by distributed surface-breaking cracks. One possible reason is complexity caused by the interaction of surface waves between multiple cracks. In this study, interaction of surface waves between two surface-breaking cracks with various crack spacing was investigated. The experimental study was performed on Plexiglas specimens with non-contact sensors (air-coupled sensors, and a laser vibrometer), and compared with numerical simulation results. The effects of crack depth h, spacing a, and the number of cracks N on surface wave transmission were studied. Analyses show that for the very small crack spacing (a/h<0.2), the distributed cracks can be regarded as a single surface-breaking crack. However, for a/h ranging between approximately 1 and 6, transmission coefficient of surface waves is significantly affected by interaction between cracks. The transmission coefficients have the lowest value when a/h is between 2 and 3. When a/h is large (a/h>6), transmission coefficients obtained from experiments, and numerical simulations agree with the theoretical results based on non-interaction crack assumption.     

高能超声制备碳纳米管增强AZ91D复合材料的声场模拟

建立了高能超声制备碳纳米管增强AZ91D复合材料的声场计算模型, 并采用有限元方法计算了20 kHz超声直接作用下AZ91D熔体的声场分布, 熔体声场呈辐射状分布, 距离声源越远, 声压幅值越低. 采用超声作用下单一气泡变化模型描述超声作用下AZ91D 熔体中的空化效应, 通过对Rayleigh-Plesset方程的求解, 得到了不同声压作用下气泡的变化规律, 获得了声压幅值与熔体空化效应的关系, 声压幅值越大, 气泡溃灭半径阈值越小, 熔体发生空化效应越容易. 计算了固定坩埚尺寸、不同超声探头没入熔体深度情况下的声场, 得到了超声探头最优没入深度为30 mm左右. 将声场计算结果以及AZ91D熔体中空化效应的发生规律进行综合分析, 得到了超声功率对有效空化区域的影响规律, 超声功率较大时, 有效空化区域体积随超声功率近似成线性增大. 最后, 通过甘油水溶液超声处理实验, 验证了模拟计算的准确性.     

Two-dimensional simulation of the single-sided air-coupled ultrasonic pitch-catch technique for non-destructive testing

Non-contact air-coupled ultrasonic inspection of materials using single-sided access offers interesting possibilities for the development of in-line non-destructive testing (NDT) systems. This contribution reports observations and simulations obtained from a single-sided air-coupled pitch-catch configuration. The pitch-catch technique involves a set-up in which transmitter and receiver are located at the same side of the test object. Sound waves, reflected once or multiple times from the back-wall of the object or refracted by a discontinuity, are recorded and analyzed for visualization. The feasibility of the technique is demonstrated, experimentally, in the case of artificial defects in aluminium samples. Depending on the configuration one or more ultrasonic images of the defect can be observed, their number and relative position containing information about the location of the defect. The experiments are simulated using two distinctive methods. The first simulation is based on a ray tracing (shadow) approach, the second method uses a spectral solution implemented within Comsol. Both simulation methods allow simple prediction of the response images in experimental conditions with supplementary levels of complexity, which will assist the development and optimization of online inspection techniques.     

Ultrasonic field characteristics in resonant standing waves

The application of high performance ultrasound in resonant standing waves recently has obtained some new technical applications as the ultrasonic-standing-wave-atomization (USWA) of liquids. In this application a resonant ultrasonic wave field is generated by means of two oscillating transducers facing each other on a common axis. Characterization of the wave field formation in this resonant, high-amplitude case of ultrasonic standing wave fields is of significant importance for understanding and optimization of such processes. Computational simulation of the sound field provides insight in the complex gas behaviour and atomization process. The numerical simulation of the ultrasonic field characteristics is based on the fundamental hydrodynamic conservation equations including nonlinear and viscous effects. The numerical calculation procedure and boundary conditions will be outlined. Results for the ultrasonic wave field characteristics in standard geometric arrangements as well as possibilities for energy density enhancement will be discussed.     

Numerical simulation of evaluation of surface breaking cracks by array-lasers generated narrow-band SAW

Most of the factors limiting the extensive application of laser-based ultrasonic for nondestructive evaluation of surface breaking crack are its poor sensitivity, low efficiency relative to conventional contact ultrasonic methods and limit on the dimension of the cracks. For this reason, a new technique that multiplepulse narrow-band ultrasound generated by laser arrays has been proposed. It is found that crack detection dependent on spectrum of narrow-band ultrasound generated by laser arrays can be operated with low amplitude requirements. In this paper, the narrow-band ultrasound generated by pulse laser arrays interacting with surface breaking cracks has been simulated in detail by the finite element method (FEM) according to the thermoelastic theory. The pulsed array lasers were assumed to be transient heat source, and the surface acoustic wave (SAW) which propagating on the top of the plate was computed based on thermoelastic theory. Then the frequency spectrums of both reflected waves by crack and transmission ones through crack were compared with the direct waves. Results demonstrate that multiple-frequency components of the narrow-band ultrasound were varied with change of the depth of surface breaking cracks significantly, which provides the possibility for precise evaluation of surface breaking cracks.     

Acoustic field excited by a pulsed laser line source in a cylinder

The excitation and propagation of the acoustic waves in an elastic cylinder are studied by laser ultrasonics both theoretically and experimentally. The theoretical analysis of the two-dimensional acoustic field excited by a pulsed laser line source impacting on the generatrix of an elastic cylinder is presented. The dispersive properties for both cylindrical Rayleigh wave and the higher modes--whispering gallery (WG) modes are analyzed in detail. The numerical transient displacement waveforms for a detecting point located another terminal of the cylinder diameter opposite the source are calculated. The experimental excitation and detection of the acoustic waves in an aluminum cylinder are carried out on a laser ultrasonic system, which mainly consists of a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser and a laser interferometer. The wave components of bulk waves and surface waves (cylindrical Rayleigh waves and WG modes) are analyzed by comparing the numerical and experimental waveforms. The results are in good agreement.