Ultrasonic guided wave inspection is expanding rapidly to many different areas of manufacturing and in-service inspection. The purpose of this paper is to provide a vision of ultrasonic guided wave inspection potential aswe move forward into the new millennium. An increased understanding of the basic physics and wave mechanics associated with guided wave inspection has led to an increase in practical nondestructive evaluation and inspection problems. Some fundamental concepts and a number of different applications that are currently being considered will be presented in the paper along with a brief description of the sensor and software technology that will make ultrasonic guided wave inspection commonplace in the next century.

A Baseline and Vision of Ultrasonic Guided Wave Inspection Potential

Lamb waves are the most widely used acousto-ultrasonic guided waves for damage detection. The method is generally complicated by the coexistence of at least two highly dispersive modes at any given frequency. Furthermore pure Lamb wave modes may generate a variety of other modes by interacting with defects and/or by crossing different boundaries. Knowledge and understanding of Lamb wave propagation is important for reliable damage detection. However, the theoretical analysis of guided wave scattering forms an extremely difficult problem. This paper reports an application of the local interaction simulation approach for wave propagation in metallic structures. The focus of the analysis is on damage detection applications. The study also involves wave propagation in a piezoceramic actuator/sensor diffusion bond model in which one of the piezoceramics generates the thickness mode vibration. The simulated results are validated experimentally. The results show the potential of the method for wave propagation analysis in damage detection applications.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0964-1726/12/5/018/pdf

Modelling of Lamb waves for damage detection in metallic structures: Part I. Wave propagation

Modelling of wave propagation in composite plates using the time domain spectral element method

Maintenance of air, land and sea structures is an important engineering activity in a wide range of industries including transportation and Civil Engineering. Effective maintenance minimises not only the cost of ownership of structures but also improves safety and the perception of safety. Inspection for material/structural damage, such as fatigue cracks and corrosion in metallics or delamination in composites, is an essential part of maintenance.

Richard J. Talbot

Papers

Finite element analysis of frequency spectra for elastic waveguides