Propagation of guided waves in pressure vessel

Pressure vessels usually operate under extremes of high/low temperatures and high pressures. Defect, such as crack and corrosion, can result in leakage or rupture failures, even catastrophic incidents. Guided wave-based structural health monitoring (SHM) technology is one of the most prominent options in non-destructive evaluation and testing (NDE/NDT) techniques. Propagation of guided waves in a typical pressure vessel is systematically investigated in this study for the application of guided wave-based SHM. Shape of the pressure vessel is a cylinder with two end caps. Because of geometric similarity, theory of guided wave propagation in the cylinderical structure is analyzed to study dispersive features of guided waves in the pressure vessel. Dispersion curves of three different types of guided wave modes, viz. the longitudinal, torsional and flexural modes, are calculated using theoretical method. Based on the analyses and experimental wave signals, central frequency and wave parameters of incident wave are optimized. Effect of contained liquid on propagation of guided waves, especially the L(0, 2) mode, in the pressure vessel is further investigated to minimize energy leakage of the wave to the contained liquid. The analytical method, finite element analysis (FEA) and experiments are applied to study propagation characteristics of guided waves in the pressure vessel, so as to demonstrate the feasibility of guided wave-based non-destructive evaluation and testing (NDE/NDT) for such kind of complex structures.