Abstract
Ultrasonic inspection is frequently used to detect defects in structures during manufacturing, maintenance, and service. Traditionally the inspection is performed by manually or robotically scanning the surface with a single ultrasonic transducer. A flexible ultrasonic transducer array represents an innovative solution to many of the problems associated with traditional ultrasonic inspections. The flexible array consists of hundreds of ultrasonic pulser-receivers in a 2D arrangement that can be tailored to the geometry of the part to be inspected. The inspection is performed by placing the array on the inspection surface and activating each pulser-receiver in turn under computer control. Advantages of the flexible array include ease of use, rapid automated inspection, vacuum coupling to the surface, and ability to conform to curved surfaces. Since the array elements are at fixed locations, the inspection results can always be displayed as easy to interpret C-scan images. This paper describes the flexible ultrasonic array inspection systems and discusses potential piping inspection applications.
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