• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.42-50
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• 2008

To evaluate rock bolt integrity, destructive test such as pull-out test has been commonly carried out. This method is known as time consuming, expensive, and inaccurate procedure. To improve destructive method, non-destructive techniques using transmitted guided ultrasonic waves were suggested. Note for the transmission method, the source for the generation of ultrasonic waves should be installed during the rock bolt construction. The purpose of this study is to investigate the reflection method using reflected guided ultrasonic waves to evaluate the integrity of the rock bolt grouted, and to compare the results evaluated by the reflection and transmission methods. The guided waves are generated by PZT element and received by AE sensor. The measured signals are analyzed by the wavelet transform. The results show that the energy velocities of guided ultrasonic waves increase with the defect ratio in both transmission and reflection method. The reflection method produces the lower velocity in all defect ratio. This research demonstrates that the reflection method may be suitable and easer method for the field tests.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.75 no.4
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• pp.435-444
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• 2020

Ultrasonic guided wave testing is a very promising non-destructive testing method for rails, which is of great significance for ensuring the safe operation of railways. On the basis of the semi-analytical finite element (SAFE) method, a analytical model of 59R2 grooved rail was proposed, which is commonly used in the ballastless track of modern tram. The dispersion curves of ultrasonic guided waves in free rail and supported rail were obtained. Sensitivity analysis was then undertaken to evaluate the effect of rail elastic modulus on the phase velocity and group velocity dispersion curves of ultrasonic guided waves. The optimal guided wave mode, optimal excitation point and excitation direction suitable for detecting rail integrity were identified by analyzing the frequency, number of modes, and mode shapes. A sinusoidal signal modulated by a Hanning window with a center frequency of 25 kHz was used as the excitation source, and the propagation characteristics of high-frequency ultrasonic guided waves in the rail were obtained. The results show that the rail pad has a relatively little influence on the dispersion curves of ultrasonic guided waves in the high frequency band, and has a relatively large influence on the dispersion curves of ultrasonic guided waves in the low frequency band below 4 kHz. The rail elastic modulus has significant influence on the phase velocity in the high frequency band, while the group velocity is greatly affected by the rail elastic modulus in the low frequency band.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.445-461
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• 2019

The ultrasonic guided wave-based technique has become one of the most promising methods in non-destructive evaluation and structural health monitoring, because of its advantages of large area inspection, evaluating inaccessible areas on the structure and high sensitivity to small damage. To further advance the development of damage detection technologies using ultrasonic guided waves for the inspection of welded components in structures, the transmission characteristics of the ultrasonic guided waves propagating through welded joints with various types of defects or damage in steel plates are studied and presented in this paper. A three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) model considering the different material properties of the mild steel, high strength steel and austenitic stainless steel plates and their corresponding welded joints as well as the interaction condition of the steel plate and welded joint, is developed. The FE model is validated against analytical solutions and experimental results reported in the literature and is demonstrated to be capable of providing a reliable prediction on the features of ultrasonic guided wave propagating through steel plates with welded joints and interacting with defects. Mode conversion and scattering analysis of guided waves transmitted through the different types of weld defects in steel plates are performed by using the validated FE model. Parametric studies are undertaken to elucidate the effects of several basic parameters for various types of weld defects on the transmission performance of guided waves. The findings of this research can provide a better understanding of the transmission behaviour of ultrasonic guided waves propagating through welded joints with defects. The method could be used for improving the performance of guided wave damage detection methods.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.525-533
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• 2009

Emphasis in the paper is placed on describing guided wave successes and challenges for applications in aircraft and composite materials inspection. Guided wave imaging methods discussed includes line of sight, tomography, guided wave C-scan, phased array, and ultrasonic vibration methods. Applications outlined encircles lap splice, bonded repair patch, fuselage corrosion, water loaded structures, delamination, and ice detection and de-icing of various structures.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.117-123
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• 2009

This paper presents a numerical simulation of guided ultrasonic waves propagating in aluminum-epoxy-aluminum adhesive plates. In particular, this study investigated the effect of the epoxy thickness on the dispersive patterns, such as the phase velocity and group velocity of guided ultrasonic waves. In addition to investigating the dispersive curves, a numerical simulation using the pulse-echo method was carried out. This simulation showed that the degree of sensitivity of the epoxy thickness is dependent on the curvature of the phase and group dispersion curves, the maximum amplitude of the received time signals, and the peak frequency of the real components of the Fourier transform. Then, the linear relations between the epoxy thickness and the received and transformed signals were constructed to estimate the epoxy thickness.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.140-145
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• 2010

This study presents a detection method for mechanically fabricated defects on underwater steel pipes, using ultrasonic guided waves. Three different diameters (60, 90, and 114 mm) of 1000-mm long steel pipes were considered, along with several experimental design factors such as incident angles, incident distances, and the degrees of defects, to investigate how these factors affected the experimental results - the detectability of the mechanical defects. From the experimental results, we determined that the amplitude and arrival time of the first received wave signals gave a promising clue for distinguishing the existence of the defects and their severities. Between the amplitude and arrival time, the arrival time gave a more promising indication since it was affected by the experimental factors in a constant manner. Therefore, it was shown that the use of ultrasonic guided waves for underwater pipe inspection is feasible.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.227-233
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• 2011

The ultrasonic guided wave phased array using magnetostrictive patch transducers is proposed. The magnetostrictive transducer has received much attention because it is cost-effective and capable to generate ultrasonic waves with a simple configuration. However, it has not been used for ultrasonic guided wave phased array applications until now. In this paper, we propose a magnetostrictive transducer based phased array system consisting of a multi-channel function generator, power amplifiers and Lamb wave magnetostrictive transducers. To check the performance of the ultrasonic guided wave phased array, several Lamb wave focusing experiments were carried out in an aluminum plate. The results demonstrated the capability of the developed array to focus the Lamb waves at specific target points.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.35 no.10
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• pp.1257-1264
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• 2011

Guided ultrasonic waves propagating over long distances within a short period provide a fast long-range inspection method. However, structures with arbitrary cross-sections, such as rails, have complicated dispersion characteristics that make analysis of the ultrasonic signal difficult. Therefore, an understanding of the characteristics of the propagating waves in rails is important for the creation of a reliable and practical inspection system using guided waves. In particular, it is necessary to investigate the dispersion characteristics of the guided waves. This paper introduces a method for the calculation of the dispersion curves of KS60 rails by adopting a SAFE method, and discusses the possibility of using guided waves as a technique for rail inspection.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.795-817
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• 2016

A non-contact, in-situ and non-invasive technique for health monitoring of submerged fiber reinforced polymers (FRP) laminates has been developed using ultrasonic guided waves. A pair of mobile transducers at specific angles of incidence to the submerged FRP specimen was used to excite Lamb wave modes. Lamb wave modes were used for comprehensive inspection of various types of manufacturing defects like air gaps and missing epoxy, introduced during manufacturing of FRP using Vacuum Assisted Resin Infusion Molding (VARIM). Further service induced damages like notches and surface defects were also studied and evaluated using guided waves. Quantitative evaluation of transmitted ultrasonic signal in defect ridden FRPs $vis-{\grave{a}}-vis$ healthy signal has been used to relate the extent of damage in FRPs. The developed technique has the potential to develop into a quick, real time health monitoring tool for judging the service worthiness of FRPs.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.481-493
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• 2018

Ultrasonic guided waves have attracted increasing attention for non-destructive testing (NDT) and structural health monitoring (SHM) of bridge cables. They offer advantages like single measurement, wide coverage of acoustical field, and long-range propagation capability. To design defect detection systems, it is essential to understand how guided waves propagate in cables and how to select the optimal excitation frequency and mode. However, certain cable characteristics such as multiple wires, anchorage, and polyethylene (PE) sheath increase the complexity in analyzing the guided wave propagation. In this study, guided wave modes for multi-wire bridge cables are identified by using a semi-analytical finite element (SAFE) technique to obtain relevant dispersion curves. Numerical results indicated that the number of guided wave modes increases, the length of the flat region with a low frequency of L(0,1) mode becomes shorter, and the cutoff frequency for high order longitudinal wave modes becomes lower, as the number of steel wires in a cable increases. These findings were used in design of transducers for defect detection and selection of the optimal wave mode and frequency for subsequent experiments. A magnetostrictive transducer system was used to excite and detect the guided waves. The applicability of the proposed approach for detecting and locating wire breakages was demonstrated for a cable with 37 wires. The present ultrasonic guided wave method has been found to be very responsive to the number of brokenwires and is thus capable of detecting defects with varying sizes.