Papers by Keyword: Laser Ultrasonic

Abstract: The paper addresses the use of laser ultrasonic structuroscopy to study how weathering affects the internal structure of rocks used for facing buildings. For 1,250 hours rock samples were subjected to 150 cycles of freezing (at-20°C) and thawing in water (at +20°C) to determine their frost resistance. Also, moistened every 30 minutes, rock samples were exposed to thermal and ultraviolet radiation for 480 hours to determine their weather resistance. The frequency-dependent phase velocity and attenuation coefficient of longitudinal ultrasonic pulses in the samples were measured. It is found that the rock samples are most seriously damaged when exposed to sharp changes in temperature. As a result of freeze-thaw processes, the velocity of elastic waves decreases by 10% on average, and the attenuation coefficient increases by a factor of 1.5 in the range of 300kHz-500kHz and more than 3 times in the range of 1.0MHz-1.5MHz. The coefficient of the relative power of “structural” noise (K parameter) is introduced to characterize the degree of degradation of rock samples. The parameter K is defined as the ratio of the power of noise component in the spectrum of scattered waves to the power of reference signal. It is shown that the parameter K increases almost by a factor of 10 as a result of various weathering processes.

Abstract: This paper describes the nondestructive evaluation of microstructure using laser-excited Lamb waves to detect the phase transformation in NiTi shape memory alloy sheets. Lamb waves were applied in the NiTi sheet using a pulse laser beam. Piezoelectricity transducers were used to receive the Lamb waves, the group velocities of which were measured using a time-frequency analysis method at different temperatures. Results show that a marked variation in the group velocity occurs during the phase transformation in the NiTi alloy. The dependence of group velocity on temperature provides a effective means of inspecting microstructure transformation in NiTi alloys.

Abstract: Nondestructive test systems are increasingly applied in the industrial context for their strong potentialities in improving and standardizing quality control. Especially in the service stage of rail, early detection of nucleus defects in the rail can avoid the broken rail accident. The aim of present work is to propose a kind of non-contact nondestructive testing method based on the laser and electro-magnetic acoustic transducer techniques, which is suitable to inspect the nucleus defects. This paper describes the testing system, principle and signal processing. The result shows the relative error of testing nucleus defects is about 3.24 %.

Abstract: An approach of detecting ultrasonic signals generated by pulsed laser is studied. The influence factors are analyzed on the received signals. Based on pulsed laser generating ultrasonic, a metal plate is used as a detected target. The ultrasonic is induced by way of combining high-power pulsed laser with optical attenuation unit, and then received by a piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer. The difference between ablation regime and thermo elasticity with different pulsed laser input parameters are compared. Moreover the ultrasonic propagation under different thickness of metal plate and the impacts of relative position of stimulating point and detection point on ultrasonic signal is researched. The validity of this method is demonstrated through these experiments and the laser input parameters are determined when in thermo elasticity.

Abstract: Detection and characterization of defects in metal parts in industrial and commercial settings has typically been carried out by nondestructive ultrasonic inspection systems. The aim of present work is to propose a kind of non-contact nondestructive testing system based on the laser and electro-magnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) techniques, which is suitable to inspect the defects in metal material. The maximum lift-off value (LOV) of the system is 10 mm. Wavelet threshold method (WTM) is employed to improve the signal to noise ratio (SNR), and the values of SNR increase to 67.42 dB and 64.66 dB for the case of LOV=0 mm and LOV=10 mm, respectively.

Abstract: A laser ultrasonic based nondestructive evaluation (NDE) technique has been widely used in aerospace industries for inspecting parts and structures made of composite materials. The thermoelastic regime is used for the ultrasonic generation, so no plasma is formed on the surface of composite structure. Generally, the service lifetime for an aircraft could be more than 25 years. Thus, the composite structures of the aircraft could be susceptible to laser pulse fatigue damage caused by the laser pulse energy of a laser ultrasonic generator in the long-term periodic maintenance inspection. In this paper, the effect of laser pulse fatigue on the mechanical characteristics of a carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) plate (USN175BX Carbon UD preprag) with the stacking sequence of [0/45/-45/90]s is investigated to verify the reliability of the use of a laser ultrasonic based NDE technique on the CFRP plate specimen inspection. A high-speed laser ultrasonic scanning system (400mm/s at the intervals of 0.4 mm) was setup to perform repeat scanning of 1300 times on a CFRP plate specimen with the scanning area of 70 mm x 60 mm. These repeat scanning times were set in consideration of the periodic maintenance inspection scheduled to be 1 time/week x 52 weeks/year x 25 years. A 532nm Q-switched continuous wave laser (QL) was used and set at the laser pulse energy levels of 0.6 mJ and 1.2 mJ. Lamb wave assessment based on pitch-catch method was proposed in this paper to monitor the mechanical characteristics of a composite specimen. In each completion of 100 times repeat scanning, the Young’s modulus of the scanning area was evaluated based on the group velocity of S0 Lamb wave mode. In addition, the surface condition of the scanning area was investigated by using a microscope.

Abstract: Soundness of wind turbine blade plays paramount role in supplying cheap and reliable wind energy. To ensure that blades are sound and free from inherent manufacturing defects, easy and reliable quality evaluation before delivering blades for installation is crucial. We propose an ultrasonic amplitude imaging method based on Ultrasonic Propagation Imaging (UPI) system for this purpose. The system utilizes a scanning Q-switched continuous wave laser as ultrasonic wave generator. Various acousto-ultrasonic sensors, either contact or non-contact type, could be adopted as ultrasonic receiver. The system was tested on a blade section made of glass fiber reinforced plastic sandwiched with balsa wood. The leading edge of the specimen with a kissing disbond was inspected. A PZT-based sensor attached temporarily on the outer surface of a blade was used for ultrasonic reception to demonstrate that this imaging method is applicable even for the blades without integrated sensor. The amplitude map clearly showed the disbond defect with the kissing features. The location, shape, and size of the defect evaluated from the result agree excellently with the actual defect. The result proved that the proposed method works well for the quality evaluation of wind turbine blades. Inheriting the advantages of UPI technology, i.e. focusing-free characteristics, acceptance of large laser incident angle up to 60°, and rapid scanning without needing an expensive scan gantry, this system is suitable for automatic quality evaluation of blades with different geometry. On top of that, this system does not require any reference data, making it a flexible quality evaluation system suitable for different methods of blade production flow.

Abstract: Contact type detection, one of UT for the detection of defects in welding area, has several weak-points. Proximity type ultrasonic inspection using laser is being studied these days to make up for the weak points of contact type ultrasonic inspection. In this paper, automatic inspection system of the welding area of spiral welding pipe has been developed, of which mechanical characteristic is better than that of circular directional pipes, and executed the proximity ultrasonic inspections using laser. The usefulness of proximity ultrasonic inspection using laser will be verified in this paper through the analysis of the inspection results.

Abstract: We present a laser-ultrasonic technique to generate the lowest symmetric ( ) Lamb wave in a thin plate. Using this special technique, in which two symmetric laser beams quasi-simultaneously hit at the same point on both sides of the plate, we absolutely suppress anti-symmetric Lamb wave modes. This technique is applicable to any situation that requires symmetric Lamb wave mode operation and does not need additional contacts or special equipments.

Abstract: We present a suppressing technique of the antisymmetric mode by superposition of Lamb waves generated by two laser beams in a thin plate. Two Lamb waves of the same frequency propagating from the opposite direction simultaneously arrive at the point of measurement and are superposed to compose one Lamb wave. The amplitude of the superposed Lamb wave depends on the distance between two laser beams. The suppressing of antisymmetric Lamb wave mode is accomplished by selecting the distance between two beams which simultaneously satisfies the condition of the anti-node(maximum) for the symmetric mode and the minimum for the antisymmetric mode. By this method, the antisymmetric Lamb wave mode is suppressed to the degree of 1.4% of the amplitude measured at zero distance between two beams.