Ultrasonics 57 (2015) 190–197

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The reflection of guided waves from simple dents in pipes Shuyi Ma a, Zhanjun Wu a,b,⇑, Yishou Wang a, Kehai Liu a a b

State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 205 North Mathews Ave., Urbana, IL 61810-2352, USA

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history: Received 25 March 2014 Received in revised form 9 November 2014 Accepted 21 November 2014 Available online 28 November 2014 Keywords: Pipe inspection Ultrasonic guided waves Dent Deformation rate

a b s t r a c t Guided elastic waves have been anticipated as a rapid screening technique for pipe inspection. Dents occurring in pipes are a severe problem which may lead to the possibility of pipe failure. A study of the reflection characteristics of guided waves from dents of varying geometrical profile in pipes is investigated through experiments. Dented region is represented by a series of circumferential cross-sections and its geometric parameters are described by axial length and the maximum and minimum outer diameters. Both single and double sided dents are mechanically simulated in hollow aluminum pipes and then experimentally tested by exciting the longitudinal L(0,2) mode. A quantitative parameter, so-called deformation rate relating to the maximum and minimum outer diameters of the dents is defined to evaluate the effect of the extent of the deformation on the reflection. For both types of dents, it is shown that the reflection coefficients of the L(0,2) mode are all approximately a linear function of their respective deformation rates. Mode conversion occurs at the dents and reflections of the F(1,3) mode are identified. The results show that the amplitude of the reflected F(1,3) mode is generally higher when the dent has stronger non-axisymmetric features. Ó 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Dents or deformation defect in pipes is a severe problem which affects many industries. The extension of deformation caused by various complex loadings can lead to total collapse of the cross section of pipes. Therefore, it is crucial to detect the pipe wall deformation in order to guarantee the structural safety. Current methods for pipe deformation detection are mostly based on visual inspection. The standard approach is to have a color, high-resolution video camera and lighting system on a wheeled platform, which is capable of traveling across and the through the pipe while videotaping the inner surface of the pipe [1]. However, this method depends on very good visibility and may not be able to acquire high-quality images in harsh environments. Ultrasonic nondestructive testing techniques can also be used to detect deformation in pipes. The inspection system employing ultrasonic rotating scanners can create a three dimensional (3D) image of the internal pipe wall [2]. The limitation of this method is that it can only work in liquid filled pipes. In addition, these methods described above require the access to the inside of the pipe which is not feasible in many practical situations. ⇑ Corresponding author at: State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China. Tel.: +86 411 84708646. E-mail address: [email protected] (Z. Wu). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ultras.2014.11.012 0041-624X/Ó 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The cylindrically guided waves propagating along the pipe may be an attractive method for deformation detection, because of their capability of inspecting a long length of pipe from a single point [3,4]. Furthermore, access to the inside of the pipe is not required as the propagating modes may be excited on the outer wall of the pipes. The basic idea is that the presence of deformations in pipes will reflect the guided waves propagating along the pipes and change their propagation characteristics. The measurements of these reflected waves can lead to deformation detection. Na and Kundu [5] performed an experimental study on the detection of a dent in underwater pipe using flexural guided waves, focusing on the effect of the different incident angles of ultrasonic transducers and frequencies on the received signal amplitude. Ma et al. [6] carried out a feasibility study of the dent deformation detection in pipes using the L(0,2) guided wave mode with an emphasis on the effect of the dent depth on the amplitude of the reflected L(0,2) mode. However, the dent depth cannot accurately characterize the total pipe cross-section which could contain multiple dents. The interaction of cylindrically guided waves with discontinuities in the geometry of the waveguide is a topic that has stimulated a great deal of interest. The reflected or transmitted signals are closely related to the geometric parameters of discontinuities in pipes. Therefore, it is believed that a discontinuity in a pipe can be identified and even characterized by analyzing the effects of its geometric parameters on the reflection or transmission

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signals. For example, Lowe et al. [7] reported that the mode conversion in reflection from an axisymmetric mode to flexural modes enables discrimination between axially symmetric reflectors such as circumferential welds and non-axially symmetric defects. Demma et al. [8] considered the amplitude of the reflected mode converted signal and concluded that it is possible to estimate the circumferential extent of a corrosion defect by evaluating the ratio between the flexural reflected component and the axisymmetric reflected component. However, due to the diversity and complexity of the discontinuities in pipes, the problem of identifying and characterizing the discontinuities has not been figured out yet. The research about the interaction of guided waves with different discontinuities is still ongoing. In this study, an attempt is made at developing a relationship between the reflection of guided waves and the geometric characteristics of deformations in pipes. First of all in Section 3 the geometric characteristics of two typical types of dent models -single and double sided dents- are analyzed and their geometric parameters are defined. In Section 4, both types of dents with varying the geometrical profiles are mechanically simulated in hollow aluminum pipes and then experimental measurements are carried out, respectively. The experimental results are presented in Section 5, and the effect of the geometric characteristics and parameters of these dents on the reflected signals is analyzed.

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non-dispersive frequency region, and much of the considerable effort has been concentrated on this by many researchers [3,7]. The longitudinal L(0,2) guided wave is one of the most attractive modes to be used in practical pipe inspection. Previous studies and experimental experience [7,8] have shown that this mode has the following advantages: (1) Almost non-dispersive over a wide frequency band, for example, the frequency range 200–300 kHz is a particularly attractive choice for the above-mentioned aluminum pipe, according to the dispersion curves shown in Fig. 1. (2) Fastest group velocity, it will be the first signal to arrive at the receiver and so can readily be separated by time domain gating. (3) Easier to be excited without producing flexural modes by applying uniform excitation over the circumference of the pipe. (4) Sensitive to both internal and external defects as its mode shape consists approximately uniform axial motion throughout the pipe wall, as shown in Fig. 2. Thus, the L(0,2) guided wave mode was selected in this study for pipe deformation assessment. 3. Characterization of the pipe deformation

The properties of guided wave modes in pipes are complicated, but they have also been well understood. Fig. 1 shows the group velocity dispersion curves over a frequency range of 0–500 kHz for an aluminum pipe (16 mm outer diameter and 1 mm wall thickness). It is seen from Fig. 1 that there are three types of guided wave modes propagating in the axial direction of the pipe. The modes are labeled L(0, n), T(0, n) and F(m, n), respectively, referring to axisymmetric longitudinal, axisymmetric torsional and non-axisymmetric flexural modes [9]. The first index m indicates the order of harmonic variation of displacement and stresses around the circumference and the second index n is a counter variable. It is clear from Fig. 1 that multiple modes can potentially propagate at a given frequency and the modes are also generally dispersive (the velocity of a particular mode changes with frequency) so that the original wave packet is distorted as it travels along the pipe. This phenomenon makes interpretation of the signals difficult and also leads to low signal-to-noise ratio problems. For practical purposes, it is generally desirable to excite a single guided wave mode in a

The deformations that exist in pipes usually have complex, irregular cross-sectional geometries in practice. In order to investigate the reflection characteristics of guided wave modes from deformation defects, this study proceeds with the work by taking into account the simplified case of local dent deformations [10–12]. Fig. 3 presents the schematic of the models of two typical types of dents in pipes, named single and double sided dent, respectively. Each of the dents can be approximately represented as a longitudinal cross-section and a series of circumferential cross-sections, as shown in Fig. 3(a) or (b). D is the outer diameter of the un-dented pipe. In order to analyze the relationship between the reflection signals and the geometric parameters of the dent, it is necessary to identify the geometric characteristics of these dents. With regard to the models of both dents, we focus on three circumferential cross-sections: the initial section just before the dent occurs, the deepest section where the deformation is severe and the terminal cross-section just after the deformation in the direction of excitation waves, which are denoted as AA0 , BB0 and CC0 , respectively. Here, we present the deepest circumferential cross-section profiles (BB0 , solid line) of both types of dents, as shown in Fig. 3 (a) or (b). O is the geometric center of the original pipe circumferential cross-section (dashed line). Taking O as the geometric center, a Cartesian coordinate system is built up, where x, y and z represent the simple Cartesian coordinates as shown in Fig. 3. Dent depth is defined as the maximum reduction in the

Fig. 1. Group velocity dispersion curves for an aluminum pipe (outer diameter 16 mm and wall thickness 1 mm).

Fig. 2. L(0,2) mode shapes in an aluminum pipe (outer diameter 16 mm and wall thickness 1 mm) at 240 kHz.

2. Guided mode properties

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Fig. 3. Schematic of the model of a dent in a pipe. (a) Single sided dent. (b) Double sided dent.

diameter of the pipe compared to the original diameter [10]. Thus, it can be seen from Fig. 3 that the dent depth of a single sided dent is h1, while it is h2 + h3 for a double sided dent. Dmax and Dmin are, respectively, the maximum and minimum outer diameter of the dented pipe, and they also occur in the cross-section BB0 . The maximum length of the dented region along the axial direction of the pipe is Zmax, that is, the distance from AA0 to CC0 . With the increase of the dent depth, Dmax and Zmax will also increase at the same time. Consider the longitudinal wave L(0,2) which is excited in the un-dented pipe region (see Fig. 3). This mode will propagate along the length of the pipe until it reaches the location where the dented region starting at (AA0 ). Due to the geometry changes along the pipe, the L(0,2) mode will be scattered at the dent as it passes through the dented region: part of the energy of guided wave will be reflected back to the un-dented pipe, while the other part will be transmitted through the dent and continue to propagate forward. Therefore, in a pulse-echo test in this work, we will focus on the following issues: (1) mode information contained in the echo signals; (2) the relationship between the flight time of the reflections and the dented region; (3) the relationship between the amplitude of the reflections and the geometric parameters of the dent. As can be seen from Fig. 3, the production and increase of the dent depth will lead to change in other geometric parameters for the dented region. Thus the dent depth is an important parameter to reflect the severity of the dent [10]. However, the dent depth cannot sufficiently characterize the deformation extent of the dent when the dented region is complex. Therefore, we employ a quantitative parameter, so-called deformation rate d to evaluate the deformation extent of the dent [13]. Meanwhile, a relationship between the deformation rate d and the reflection coefficient of

the reflected signals has been introduced. The deformation rate d is defined as:



Dmax  Dmin  100% Dmax þ Dmin

ð1Þ

The reflection coefficient is defined as the ratio of the reflected mode to the amplitude of the L(0,2) reference signal which was taken from the end of the pipe before introducing the dent. Combining the obtained characteristics of reflections from dents, we will further analyze the relationship between the reflection coefficients of the reflected guided waves and the deformation rates of the different types of dents.

4. Experimental setup 4.1. Artificial dents Considering the difficulties of the dent fabrication in steel pipes, and also convenience for controlling the cross-sectional geometry of the dent to carry out the quantitative analysis, we conducted the experiments and measurements on two similar hollow aluminum pipes that had an outer diameter of 16 mm, a wall thickness of 1 mm and a length of 1250 mm. Fig. 4 presents the fabrication processes to simulate single and double sided dent types in two pipes. In Fig. 4(a), the first aluminum pipe was located between a horizontal support plate (length 200 mm, width 100 mm, thickness 80 mm) which is made of rubber material and a cylindrical steel bar (length 120 mm, diameter 6 mm). The steel bar was tangent to the circumferential surface of the aluminum pipe at the point E, and meanwhile, parallel to the support plate. For experimental convenience, a steel plate (length 100 mm, width 50 mm, thickness

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Fig. 4. Two types of dents and their fabrication process in hollow aluminum pipes (outer diameter 16 mm and wall thickness 1 mm). (a) Single sided dent (h1 = 3.3 mm). (b) Double sided dent (h2 + h3 = 6.7 mm).

5 mm) was placed on the top surface of the steel bar horizontally. By applying an appropriate vertical distribution force F on the steel plate, a single sided dent can be produced in this pipe. Different from the loading conditions in Fig. 4(a), the second aluminum pipe was subject to a pair of bi-directional equal distribution force F and F, and a double sided dent can be simulated, as shown in Fig. 4(b). Here, it can be seen that the dented region is approximately symmetric with respect to the XOZ plane. With this setup it was therefore possible to increase the depths of both dents by continuously applying the distribution force. The geometric parameters of each obtained single and double sided dents are listed in Tables 1 and 2, and the calculated deformation rates are also presented here. The pictures of both types of dented pipes, containing a single and a double sided dent are shown in Fig. 4(a) and (b) respectively. Here, it should be pointed out that the axial position of the deepest cross-sections BB0 of both types of dents are almost invariant with increasing the dent depth. For the single sided dent, when the dent depth is larger than 6 mm, the dented region presents more complex geometric features. Fig. 5 shows the pictures of the single sided dent with 7.7 mm dent depth. It can be clearly seen that the whole pipe takes a bent shape and the bottom region of the deepest cross-section is not circular but flat, which is not consistent with the model shown in Fig. 3(a). Therefore, the reflection characteristics from these dents are beyond the scope of this paper.

axisymmetrically, thus ensuring that the expected L(0,2) mode is excited whilst the flexural modes are suppressed. The gauges of these PZTs were 15 mm long, 3.2 mm wide, and 0.5 mm thick. The PZT that was on the same angular position with point E was defined the 1st PZT. An arbitrary waveform generator (Agilent 33220A) delivered the excitation signal to a power amplifier (T&C Power Conversion, Inc. AG1020) whose output was sent to the transducer ring, and all of the elements on the transmitting ring were excited equally. The output signal from the power amplifier was approximately 150 V peak to peak. The reflected signals were amplified and recorded independently for each of the 8 angular positions around the circumference of the ring. These signals were captured by a multi-channel data acquisition card (Spectrum, M2I.3132), and then to a PC for processing and display. The automatic transmit-receive switch shown in Fig. 6 is to switch the system automatically from transmit to receive modes of operation without delay [14]. The deepest cross-sections BB0 of the two types of dents were both located 540 mm from the end at which the PZTs were bonded. In order to calculate the reflection coefficients, reflections from end M0 were recorded before introducing any dent to the pipes. All the tests were conducted with the pipes in free states. 5. Experimental results

4.2. Inspection system

5.1. Relationship between the reflections and the geometric parameters of the dents

The Inspection system is shown in Fig. 6. The excitation signal used in the test was a 10-cycle 240 kHz tone burst modulated by a Hanning window function. A ring consisting 8 piezoelectric transducers (PZTs) was bonded at the end M of the initial pipe to excite and receive guided waves. The PZTs (APC 850) were made of length expander-type piezoelectric material and distributed

Considering the non-axisymmetric features of these dents, the mode conversion phenomenon may occur at the dented regions when the propagating L(0,2) mode is incident on the dents. In order to extract the amplitude of each of the reflected modes from the multiple transducer records, a separate processing methodology was performed. For the reflection of the order 0 modes, the 8

Table 1 Geometric parameters of each single sided dent and corresponding deformation rates. Serial number

Dent depth h1 (mm)

Minimum outer diameter Dmin (mm)

Maximum outer diameter Dmax (mm)

Axial length Zmax (mm)

Deformation rate d (%)

S-a S-b S-c S-d S-e S-f S-g S-h

0 1.6 2.3 2.8 3.8 4.3 5.2 5.9

16 14.4 13.7 13.2 12.2 11.7 10.8 10.1

16.0 16.2 16.6 16.7 17.2 17.9 18.2 18.7

0 5.3 8.2 10.2 14.8 17.4 19.3 19.5

0 5.8 9.5 11.7 17.0 20.9 25.5 29.8

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S. Ma et al. / Ultrasonics 57 (2015) 190–197 Table 2 Geometric parameters of each double sided dent and corresponding deformation rates. Serial number

Dent depth h2 + h3 (mm)

Minimum outer diameter Dmin (mm)

Maximum outer diameter Dmax (mm)

Axial length Zmax (mm)

Deformation rate d (%)

D-a D-b D-c D-d D-e D-f D-g

0 1.3 2.9 3.9 5.4 6.7 8.2

16 14.7 13.1 12.1 10.6 9.3 7.8

16.0 16.1 16.8 17.2 18.4 19.6 20.5

0 3.6 10.4 15.2 19.7 23.4 26.2

0 4.5 12.4 17.5 26.9 35.6 44.9

Fig. 5. Bottom region of the deepest cross-section of the single sided dent in the first pipe (h1 = 7.7 mm).

Fig. 6. Schematic diagram of inspection system.

individual signals from the transducers were simply added. For the non-zero order modes, a phase delay of mh=2p was added to each signal before summing them, where m is the mode order and h is the angular distance from the 1st PZT; this process is described in more detail in reference [7]. Fig. 7(a) shows the time domain signal after processing for order 0 without any dents in the first pipe. It can be seen that there is no other reflection before the pipe end echo signal. By analyzing the time record and propagation velocity, the reflection from the pipe end is confirmed to be the L(0,2) mode whose group velocity is about 5.315 m/ms. Fig. 7(b) and (c) show the collection of signals reflected from the pipe with a single sided dent whose dent depth is 2.3 mm. Fig. 7(b) shows the signal after processing for order 0, and Fig. 7(c) shows the signal when the same raw results are processed to extract the order 1 mode. For clarity, the excitation signal near the PZT location has been gated out in Fig. 7(b) and 7(c) where only the reflected signals are shown. Comparing with Fig. 7(a) and (b) clearly shows the reflected order 0 modes from the single sided dent and later from the end of the pipe. Since the L(0,2) mode is the

Fig. 7. Typical processed reflected signals from the experiments. (a) Shown for an initial pipe with processing to extract order 0 signals (h1 = 0). (b) Shown for a single sided dent with processing to extract order 0 signals (h1 = 2.3 mm) and (c) order 1 signals.

fastest mode at 240 kHz (see Fig. 1) and it is the first signal in the response, the order 0 mode from the dent is confirmed to be the L(0,2) mode. Furthermore, the time history of the reflected L(0,2) mode is corresponds to the axial location of the dented region in the pipe. The mode-converted order 1 mode from the single sided dent is also found distinctly in the received data, as shown in Fig. 7(c). It can be observed that the order 1 mode has a slight delay compared with the L(0,2) mode in Fig. 7(b). Combined with analysis of the dispersion curves in Fig. 1, it is confirmed that this order 1 mode is the F(1,3) mode. In the process of test, a order 2 mode with this dent profile, F(2,3), may also be reflected but its amplitude is smaller at this dent depth and is therefore omitted here.

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Fig. 8. Reflection of the L(0,2) mode from the dents of various dent depths. (a) Single sided dents. (b) Double sided dents (h = h2 + h3).

Fig. 9. Hilbert envelopes of the reflected L(0,2) mode from the dents of various dent depths. (a) Single sided dents; (b) Double sided dents.

Fig. 8(a) and (b) present the reflection of the L(0,2) mode from each single and double sided dents. Fig. 9(a) and (b) are the corresponding envelopes of the time signals after Hilbert transform. It can be clearly seen from Figs. 8(a) and 9(a) that the amplitude of the L(0,2) mode increases monotonically with respect to the dent depth. As for the double sided dent, the reflected L(0,2) mode exhibits the same monotonic increase, as shown in Figs. 8(b) and 9(b). Therefore it is intuitive to expect that the amplitude of the dent echoes can effectively reflect the deformation extent of the pipe. The onset time estimation of the reflected signals is an important factor in determining the axial location of the defect in pipe. Common strategies for estimation the onset time of narrowband

signals have been studied by many investigators and much of this work has been reviewed by Moll [15]. To simplify the analysis, double-peak-technique [16] has been utilized to estimate the onset time. It can be observed from Fig. 8(a) that the onset times of each reflected L(0,2) modes from the single sided dents are all about 204 ls. Meanwhile, the envelopes of these signals are almost coincident at this onset time point, as shown in Fig. 9(a). The axial location of the dented region calculated based on this onset time is approximately 542 mm from the transducer ring, which is about 2 mm different from the deepest cross-section BB0 in the dented pipe. From Figs. 8(b) and 9(b), it can be seen that the reflected L(0,2) modes from the double sided dents are all about 202 ls, and the calculated axial location of the dented region is approximately

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537 mm from the transducer ring. These results demonstrate that the time record of the dent echoes can effectively locate the axial position of the dented region in pipes. 5.2. Relationship between the reflections and the deformation rates of dents Fig. 10 shows the L(0,2) and F(1,3) reflection coefficients at a frequency of 240 kHz as a function of the deformation rates for both types of dents illustrated in Section 4. It can be seen that the L(0,2) reflection coefficients from both types of dents are all approximately a linear function with their respective deformation rates. This demonstrates that the deformation rate can effectively evaluate the amplitude of the reflected L(0,2) mode from dents in pipes. Combined with the ability of the onset time to locate the dented region, we believe that it is feasible to detect the dent using the longitudinal L(0,2) mode. The reflection coefficients of both types of dents also provide a reference for evaluating the deformation extent of the pipe. Furthermore, it can be observed from Fig. 10 that the L(0,2) reflection coefficients from both types of dents are almost identical when the deformation rate is less than about 20%, while at the higher deformation rate, the L(0,2) reflection coefficient from the double sided dent is higher than that from the single sided dent. The reason is that the bottom of the deepest dent cross-section of the single sided dent presents a slightly flat surface, which leads to a somewhat lower rate of change of the L(0,2) reflection coefficient. We discuss this issue in more detail in Section 6 below. From Fig. 10, we observe that the F(1,3) reflection coefficients from both types of dents increase monotonically with respect to their respective deformation rates. The characteristics of these reflected F(1,3) modes may be related to the symmetry of the dent and these results are discussed in Section 6 below. Generally speaking, the characteristics of reflection are closely related to the geometric parameters of the discontinuity in pipes. To carry out parametric analysis, researchers usually change one parameter while keeping the other parameters constant and then study the effect of this parameter on the reflection, for example cracks and notches [7,8]. In the case of dents, however, we can see from Fig. 3 that as the deformation extent increases, the geometric parameters of the dented region change at the same time. It is thus difficult to determine which specific parameters or factors influence the reflection of the guided modes at the present stage and we will continue to further investigate this issue in our future work.

Fig. 10. Measured amplitude of the reflection coefficients for both types of dents in 16 mm diameter, 1 mm wall thickness aluminum pipes at 240 kHz as a function of the deformation rate.

6. Discussion Any geometrical perturbation along the geometry of a monodimensional waveguide will lead to changes of the displacement, stress and strain field of the incident mode. Therefore, such geometrical perturbation along the waveguide can cause scattering of an incident mode into the same reflected mode as well as other modes at the same frequency. In general, a large geometry change is indicative of a severe geometrical perturbation and hence results in a stronger scattering phenomenon. Although the exact mode reflection dependent geometry changes for the dented region are not available at this moment, we carry out an intuitive analysis in this work showing reflection dependence with deformation rates. Taking the single sided dent as an example, the axial length of the dented region Zmax increased rapidly with increasing the dent depth, as shown in Table 1 i.e., the distance from initial cross-section AA0 to the transducer ring decreased gradually with increasing Zmax. However, the onset time of each dent echoes shown in Figs. 8(a) and 9(a) does not change much. The reason is that the initial cross-section AA0 presents a slight geometry change and the reflection of the incident L(0,2) mode from AA’ is very small in amplitude and almost negligible. Similarly, the reflection from the terminal cross-section CC0 can also be n0 egligible. On the other hand, the deepest dent cross-section (BB0 ) shows the most severe geometry changes and hence the strongest reflections occur at this cross-section. With an increase in the dent depth, the cross-section BB0 presented a more strong geometry change and the amplitude of the reflected L(0,2) mode is stronger, as shown in Figs. 8(a) and 9(a). On the other hand, the severity of the geometrical perturbation is also reflected in the rate of the geometry change within a small region along the waveguide. That is to say, a sharp geometry change is indicative of a severe geometrical perturbation, and conversely a smooth geometry change is indicative of a slight geometrical perturbation. In the case of the bottom region of the single sided dent shown in Fig. 5, we also regard it as a dent deformation. Compared with the single sided dent with the same dent depth or deformation rate, this dent deformation has a smoother change along the length of the pipe, especially within a small region around their deepest cross sections, and hence leads to less reflection of the L(0,2) mode. The acoustic fields of the guided modes in the pipe circumference can be represented explicitly as a cosine function (i.e., cosðmhÞ). Therefore, the amplitude of the reflected flexural modes from defects in pipes is closely related to the geometric symmetry of these defects. In general, a much stronger non-axisymmetric defect is indicative of a higher reflection. For the single sided dent, it is obvious that the circumferential cross-sections in the dented region are non-axisymmetric, as shown in Fig. 3(a). The reason for the increasing of the reflection coefficient of the F(1,3) mode is that the dented region presents a stronger non-axisymmetry with increasing the deformation rate. In the case of the double sided dent, the circumferential cross-sections in the dented region are approximately symmetric with respect to the XOZ plane. If we assume that the double sided dent is composed of two identical single sided dents, thus the overall F(1,3) mode received by the transducers can be regarded as the superposition of the F(1,3) mode from each single sided dent and the amplitude of the overall F(1,3) mode should be very small. However, it can be observed from Fig. 10 that the F(1,3) reflection coefficient from the double sided dent also increases monotonically with the deformation rate. The most likely reason is that there existed a deviation in the dent fabrication process that led to the asymmetry of the circumferential cross-sections with respect to the XOZ plane and this asymmetry increased with the dent depth.

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Identification and characterization of damages is an interesting topic in guided waves-based pipe research and applications. From Fig. 10, we note that the ratio between the L(0,2) and F(1,3) reflection coefficients for the double sided dents are generally higher than those for the single sided dents. The intuitive reason is that the double sided dent presents a more obvious axisymmetry compared to the single sided dent, as shown in Fig. 3. This characteristic provides a reference for identification of the two simple dents in pipes. Furthermore, we have also investigated the reflection characteristics of L(0,2) mode from these dents in pipes using a wide frequency range. The results show that the L(0,2) reflection coefficient decreases with frequency. Since the reflection of guided waves from corrosion defects usually increase at relatively high frequencies, this characteristic provides a possibility for identification corrosion defects and dents in pipes. This issue will be reported in another forthcoming paper. However, dent damage characterization is still facing challenges. For example, it is difficult to evaluate the axial length of the dented region from the time record of the reflected signals; there are various types of dents in pipes and their reflection characteristics may be different; the reflection characteristics from the dents with complex geometric features have not been well understood. In general, the interaction of the guided waves with a real deformation is a relatively more complicated phenomenon due to propagation in the complex dented region and reflection of waves at the irregular boundaries. Such practical problems require further research to identify their physical mechanisms from a theoretical perspective and to generalize the results of this research to more situations. 7. Conclusions In this paper, we have studied the reflection of the cylindrical guided waves from dent deformations with varying geometrical profile in pipes. The geometric characteristics of two typical types of dents were analyzed and their geometric parameters were defined. By analyzing the effect of the geometric characteristics of these dents on the reflection signals, a quantitative relationship between the geometric parameters of the dents and the amplitude of the reflected guided waves has been developed and discussed. The study reveals that the presence of dents in pipes scatters the guided wave propagation in the pipe due to the geometry change. When the longitudinal L(0,2) guided wave mode is incident on the dented region, the L(0,2) and F(1,3) modes are reflected. Combining the geometric characteristics of these dents, it has been observed that the reflection of the L(0,2) mode from the deepest cross-section of the dent is strongest. With an increase in the dent extent, the amplitudes of the reflected L(0,2) mode can be observed to increase, and the time flight of the L(0,2) mode can effectively locate the dented region along the axial length of the pipe.

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To evaluate the effect of the extent of the deformation on the reflection, a quantitative parameter so-called deformation rate is defined, which relates to the maximum and minimum outer diameters of the dent. For both types of dents, it has been shown that the reflection coefficients of the L(0,2) mode are all approximately a linear function of their respective deformation rates. Moreover, it has also been shown that the amplitude of the reflected F(1,3) mode from dent is generally higher when the dent has stronger non-axisymmetric features. These results provide a reference for evaluation of the deformation extent of the dent in pipes. Acknowledgements The work that is described in this paper is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 91016024), the New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-11-0055) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (DUT12LK33). References [1] O. Duran, K. Althoefer, L.D. Seneviratne, State of the art in sensor technologies for sewer inspection, IEEE Sens. J. 2 (2) (2002) 73–81. [2] N.G. Pace, Ultrasonic surveying of fully charged sewage pipes, Electron. Commun. Eng. J. 6 (2) (1994) 87–92. [3] D.N. Alleyne, B. Pavlakovic, M.J.S. Lowe, P. Cawley, Rapid long range inspection of chemical plant pipework using guided waves, Insight 43 (2) (2001) 93–96. [4] J.L. Rose, A baseline and vision of ultrasonic guided wave inspection potential, J. Pressure Vessel Technol. 124 (3) (2002) 273–282. [5] W.B. Na, T. Kundu, Underwater pipeline inspection using guided waves, J. Pressure Vessel Technol. 124 (2) (2002) 196–200. [6] S.Y. Ma, Z.J. Wu, K.H. Liu, Y.S. Wang, Experimental investigation of deformation defect detection in pipes using ultrasonic guided waves, J. Mech. Eng. 49 (14) (2013) 1–8 (in Chinese). [7] M.J.S. Lowe, D.N. Alleyne, P. Cawley, The mode conversion of a guided wave by a part-circumferential notch in a pipe, J. Appl. Mech. 65 (3) (1998) 649–656. [8] A. Demma, P. Cawley, M. Lowe, et al., The reflection of guided waves from notches in pipes: a guide for interpreting corrosion measurements, NDT E Int. 37 (3) (2004) 167–180. [9] M.G. Silk, K.F. Bainton, The propagation in metal tubing of ultrasonic wave modes equivalent to Lamb waves, Ultrasonics 17 (1) (1979) 11–19. [10] K.A. Macdonald, A. Cosham, C.R. Alexander, et al., Assessing mechanical defect in offshore pipelines-Two case studies, Eng. Fail. Anal. 14 (8) (2007) 1667– 1679. [11] S. Kyriakides, M.K. Yeh, D. Roach, On the determination of the propagation pressure of long circular tubes, J. Pressure Vessel Technol. 106 (1984) 150–159. [12] J. Xue, Postbuckling analysis of the length of transition zone in a buckle propagation pipeline, J. Appl. Mech. 80 (2013) 051002-1–051002-6. [13] Q. Chen, M. Marley, J. Zhou, Remaining Capacity Collapse of Corroded Pipelines, in: Proceedings of the ASME 2011 30th International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, June 19–24, 2011. [14] E.J. Owens, Automatic transmit-receive switch uses no relays but handles high power, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 68 (1980) 712–713. [15] J. Moll, C. Heftrich, C.P. Fritzen, Time-varying inverse filtering of narrowband ultrasonic signals, Struct. Health Monit. 10 (4) (2010) 403–415. [16] J.B. Ihn, F.K. Chang, Detection and monitoring of hidden fatigue crack growth using a built-in piezoelectric sensor/actuator network: I. Diagnostics, Smart Mater. Struct. 13 (3) (2004) 609–620.

The reflection of guided waves from simple dents in pipes.

Guided elastic waves have been anticipated as a rapid screening technique for pipe inspection. Dents occurring in pipes are a severe problem which may...
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