Experimental verification of phased array annular probe in ultrasonic immersion setting

Abstract

With the ongoing development of materials and manufacturing techniques, new product design opportunities manifest themselves. However, care must be taken when applying techniques and material where there is less inherent knowledge about different parameters’ effect on the integrity of the final component. In conjunction with destructive testing of components, non-destructive evaluation (NDE) provides valuable insight into the manufacturing process reliability, as well as the possibility for subsequent future in-service inspection. Phased array ultrasonic testing (PAUT) facilitates the inspection of complex geometries on a wide set of material. Mathematical modelling of ultrasonic signal facilitates the optimization of inspection procedures by e.g., maximizing the probability of detection (POD) of specific defect types. In this paper, the response from an immersion annular phased array probe is experimentally validated to the output of the simulation software simSUNDT. In order to only validate the probe model (as both transmitter and receiver) a set of well-defined defects are used. The validity of the simulated amplitude response from side-drilled holes at a depth range of 20-115 mm is investigated. A total of 14 SDH holes in one test piece of is used as cases for validation. The results show a good correspondence between simulated and experimental data for the case where the probe is normal to the component surface.