Transducer misalignment effects in beam reflection from elastic structures

Abstract

In two-transducer, fluid-coupled ultrasonic reflection measurements phase matched to guided modes of elastic solid structures, the effects of misalignment (i.e., differences) between the receiver angle and the incident beam angle on the receiver voltage have been studied. The received voltage is typically due to contributions from the specular reflection and any of the several possible guided wave modes excited by the incident wave field. It is found that misalignment leads to changes in the relative amplitudes of the various contributions. Further, the more highly collimated the beam (or the contributor), the more pronounced are the effects. It is shown that the signal maximum is not a reliable indicator of receiver alignment. These conclusions are based on measurements and on calculations that have been performed at incident angles selected both close to, or far from, phase-matching angles to guided wave modes on plates, curved surfaces, and cylindrical shells. Receiver voltage coordinate scans have been performed with receiver angles misaligned from the incident beam axis by 1 to 4 degrees. The receiver voltage versus scan parameter in planar and curved structures is calculated by employing complex transducer points to synthesize two-dimensional, sheet-beam transducer fields with Gaussian apertures, spectral analysis to formulate the beam-structure interaction problem, and asymptotic methods to evaluate the resulting spectral integrals. The model predictions are generally in good agreement with the experiments.