Ultrasonic Nondestructive Testing Accurate Sizing and Locating Technique Based on Time-of-Flight-Diffraction Method

Abstract

The ultrasonic time-of-flight-diffraction (TOFD) method is a widely used flaw sizing and locating method. A signal identification technique is used to improve the arrival time resolution of a TOFD signal and to size and locate flaws more accurately. The ultrasonic signal is decomposed into several intrinsic mode functions by empirical mode decomposition. Some modes are selected to reconstruct a new signal considering their frequencies and energy. The reconstructed signal has a better signal-to-noise ratio and enhanced flaw information. A Hilbert transform is conducted to get the envelope and exact arrival time of the signal. All vertical flaws can be detected correctly with average sizing and locating accuracy of 0.08 mm in the laboratory. The deeper the flaw is located, the higher the accuracy. The blind area of TOFD is reduced to 2.5 mm under the surface.