Prabhu Rajagopal

Guided ultrasonic waves are widely used for long range inspection. Higher Order Modes Cluster (HOMC), discovered at the author's research group [1-3] consist of multiple higher order guided wave modes that travel together as a single wave-packet and without appreciable dispersion for distances in the range of meters. These waves not only propagate along the length of the structure but also cover the entire thickness, and in view of the higher frequencies, they can offer improved resolution over conventional low-frequency guided waves. This paper studies the sensitivity of axial plate HOMC to notch-like defects, evaluated by calculating wave reflection co-efficient. The studies are carried out using finite element models validated by experiments. Analysis is presented for better understanding of wave-defect interaction. Advantages and limitations for practical realization of the above approach are also discussed.

Online ultrasonic NDE at high-temperature is of much interest to the power, process and automotive industries in view of possible savings in downtime. This paper describes a novel approach to developing ultrasonic transducers capable of high-temperature in-situ operation using the principle of magnetostriction. Preliminary design from previous research by the authors [1] is extended for operation at 1 MHz, and at elevated temperatures by amorphous metallic strips as the magnetostrictive core. Ultrasonic signals in pulse-echo mode are experimentally obtained from the ultrasonic transducer thus developed, in a simulated high-temperature environment of 350°C for 10 hours. Advantages and challenges for practical deployment of this approach are discussed.

Additive manufacturing methods are gaining increasing popularity for rapidly and efficiently manufacturing parts and components in the industrial context, as well as for domestic applications. However, except when used for prototyping or rapid visualization of components, industries are concerned with the load carrying capacity and strength achievable by additive manufactured parts. In this paper, the wire-arc additive manufacturing (AM) process based on gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) has been examined for the internal structure and constitution of components generated by the process. High-resolution 3D X-ray tomography is used to gain cut-views through wedge-shaped parts created using this GTAW additive manufacturing process with titanium alloy materials. In this work, two different control conditions for the GTAW process are considered. The studies reveal clusters of porosities, located in periodic spatial intervals along the sample cross-section. Such internal defects can have a detrimental effect on the strength of the resulting AM components, as shown in destructive testing studies. Closer examination of this phenomenon shows that defect clusters are preferentially located at GTAW traversal path intervals. These results highlight the strong need for enhanced control of process parameters in ensuring components with minimal defects and higher strength.

Cross-sectional irregularities such as eccentricity are an important problem for pipe and tubing infrastructure. Recent work by the authors shows that such axially extended pipe irregularities can cause confinement and feature-guiding of lower order ultrasonic guided waves. In this paper, we demonstrate a technique to monitor such irregularities in pipes by detecting the feature-guided waves using fiber Bragg grating sensors. Our experimental results are in good agreement with the results reported in elastic wave literature.

Composite materials are today widely used in engineering applications because of superior strength-weight ratios offered by them as well as high structural performance and corrosion resistance. However defects such as fibre breakage, matrix cracking, de-bonding and delaminations in composites impact their structural integrity and reliability negatively and NDE techniques to rapidly identify such defects are valuable. Ultrasonic guided waves have over the years emerged as attractive tools for scanning of large structures and recently they have been considered for rapid inspection of plate and pipe installations. Air-coupled ultrasound for generation of Lamb waves is particularly attractive for composite applications in view of the non-contact inspection offered, as well as the possibilities for rapid mechanized scanning. In this paper we present damage identification and visualisation approaches for quasi-isotropic composite plate structures, based on air-coupled plate guided ultrasonic (Lamb) waves. In the implementation demonstrated, an 8-layered quasi-isotropic [0/+45/-45/90]s glass fibre reinforced plastics (GFRP) composite plate is interrogated using air-coupled pitch-catch guided ultrasound. Propagation of Lamb waves in the laminates and their interaction with delaminations of different sizes at various locations along the structure are studied using 3D finite element (FE) analysis. The visualization approach is validated using experiments, leading to quantitative predictions of defect parameters such as sizing, location and depth. The approach is also extended for the inspection of complex composite structural features such as I- and T-sections.

Horizontally polarized shear (SH) ultrasonic guided wave modes are considered to infer adhesion changes at different interfaces. In this study, the SH0 interaction with different lap joints are investigated. Experiments were performed on aluminium lap joint samples. Aluminium surfaces were prepared in a specific way to vary the adhesion. SH modes are generated and received using periodic permanent magnet (PPM) electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs), the periodicity of which is equal to the wavelength of the transducer. SH0 is generated in the plate that comprises the lap joint and received in transmission mode. Distinct signatures were observed for different samples. To investigate the physics of interaction with tri-layer and to corroborate the experiment results, three dimensional finite element (FE) models were developed. Different cases of interfacial adhesion were simulated by changing the boundary condition at both aluminium-epoxy-aluminium interfaces. This work shows the potential of SH modes for quantifying properties at adhesive interfaces.

Ultrasonic guided waves based non-destructive testing (NDT) is attractive due to its potential for long range inspection. In NDT, fiber Bragg gratings (FBG) sensor is widely adopted due to its rugged wavelength encoded information and immunity to electromagnetic interference (EMI). In this paper we discuss the reception of ultrasonic guided waves in a glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) composite plate using a surface bonded FBG sensor. Experimentally deduced values for wave velocity and attenuation are compared with the theoretical values.

Ultrasonic guided waves are attractive for rapid remote screening of large structures and today they are widely used in several practical applications including the inspection of pipe and plate installations. More recently, guided wave modal solutions confined in extended local features have attracted much research interest, offering the possibility of inspecting complex geometric or topographical features. Such feature-guided wave (FGW) modes have been reported in plate waveguides with local cross-section variation or curvature, and in annular circular cylinders with cross-sectional anomalies. This paper focuses on FGW phenomena in 90 degree structural bends in plate structures, which commonly occur in various industrial structures. Modal studies are carried out using the Semi-Analytical Finite Element (SAFE) method, while 3D finite element (FE) simulations are used to gain visualization of results and also obtain cross-validation. Our studies reveal, perhaps for the first time, the possibility of bend-guided modes of the shear-horizontal (SH) family, in addition those of the Rayleigh-Lamb family reported earlier in the literature. This mode has attractive properties including low attenuation and limited dispersion. We investigate effects of plate thickness and bend radius on the physics of FGW in bends, arguing the strong role of geometry and curvature effects in causing mode confinement. Preliminary experiments have also been carried out to validate the existence of such bend-guided mode.

The Probability of Detection (PoD) curve method has emerged as an important tool for the assessment of the performance of NDE techniques, a topic of particular interest to the nuclear industry where inspection qualification is very important. The conventional experimental means of generating PoD curves though, can be expensive, requiring large data sets (covering defects and test conditions), and equipment and operator time. Several methods of achieving faster estimates for PoD curves using physics-based modelling have been developed to address this problem. Numerical modelling techniques are also attractive, especially given the ever-increasing computational power available to scientists today. Here we develop procedures for obtaining PoD curves, assisted by numerical simulation and based on Bayesian statistics. Numerical simulations are performed using Finite Element analysis for factors that are assumed to be independent, random and normally distributed. PoD curves so generated are compared with experiments on austenitic stainless steel (SS) plates with artificially created notches. We examine issues affecting the PoD curve generation process including codes, standards, distribution of defect parameters and the choice of the noise threshold. We also study the assumption of normal distribution for signal response parameters and consider strategies for dealing with data that may be more complex or sparse to justify this. These topics are addressed and illustrated through the example case of generation of PoD curves for pulse-echo ultrasonic inspection of vertical surface-breaking cracks in SS plates.

Modelling of the entire process of an ultrasonic Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) inspection is of increasing interest in industry, because of the cost savings compared to experimental qualifications, the possibility to investigate inspection ideas, operator training, and overall improved confidence. Analytical modelling packages, usually based on ray tracing, are good for modelling wave propagation paths through a complex component, while the Finite Element (FE) method is usually better for modelling the scattering from a complicated defect. Hybrid models to link two such heterogeneous modelling packages are attractive to enable inspection engineers to get the benefit of both of these. The authors have presented the development of the models, and showed promising validation results for two-dimensional problems during QNDE conferences in the last few years. In this paper, the hybrid model is extended to three dimensional problems. The concept of the domain-linking algorithm is presented. This links two separate modelling domains, each of which may contain a different model process. Typically one domain may be used to model the transmission and reception by the transducer, while the other models the scattering from the defect. Then validation is shown by comparing the results with those of a full three-dimensional FE model. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.