Measurement of Rayleigh Wave Beams Using Angle Beam Wedge Transducers as the Transmitter and Receiver with Consideration of Beam Spreading.

Shuzeng Zhang,Hyunjo Jeong,Xiongbing Li

doi:10.3390/s17061449

Shuzeng Zhang, Hyunjo Jeong + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/s17061449

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Abstract

A theoretical model, along with experimental verification, is developed to describe the generation, propagation and reception of a Rayleigh wave using angle beam wedge transducers. The Rayleigh wave generation process using an angle beam wedge transducer is analyzed, and the actual Rayleigh wave sound source distributions are evaluated numerically. Based on the reciprocity theorem and considering the actual sound source, the Rayleigh wave beams are modeled using an area integral method. The leaky Rayleigh wave theory is introduced to investigate the reception of the Rayleigh wave using the angle beam wedge transducers, and the effects of the wave spreading in the wedge and transducer size are considered in the reception process. The effects of attenuations of the Rayleigh wave and leaky Rayleigh wave are discussed, and the received wave results with different sizes of receivers are compared. The experiments are conducted using two angle beam wedge transducers to measure the Rayleigh wave, and the measurement results are compared with the predictions using different theoretical models. It is shown that the proposed model which considers the wave spreading in both the sample and wedges can be used to interpret the measurements reasonably.

Highlights

Rayleigh waves produce elastic displacements and stress that are confined to the surface within a shallow depth of approximately one wavelength, so that they are suitable for detection and characterization of damages or material property changes confined to the surface or near surface of test components [1,2]
In order to illustrate the importance of considering the beam spreading in the wedge and the receiver size when Rayleigh wave is receipted by an angle beam wedge transducer, the received receiver size when Rayleigh wave is receipted by an angle beam wedge transducer, the received results results predicted by the proposed model are compared with the simulations using other simple predicted by the proposed model are compared with the simulations using other simple methods
The generation, propagation and reception of Rayleigh waves using the angle beam wedge transducers employed as the transmitter and receiver are modeled in this study

Summary

Introduction

Rayleigh waves produce elastic displacements and stress that are confined to the surface within a shallow depth of approximately one wavelength, so that they are suitable for detection and characterization of damages or material property changes confined to the surface or near surface of test components [1,2]. Rayleigh wave is generated and detected on the same side of the material, access to only one side of the material is required [5]. These advantages make Rayleigh wave a useful tool in ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation (NDE). Rayleigh waves can be generated by angle beam wedge transducers [6,7], comb transducers [8,9], interdigital transducers [10], etc. Because Rayleigh waves can be obtained efficiently with high energy, and the facilities are simple and cheap, angle wedge transducers are widely used in NDE with ultrasonic surface waves

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Discussion

Conclusion