GUIDED ULTRASONIC

WAVES
 FUNDAMENTALS OF
ULTRSONIC TESTING
 Branch of acoustics which uses sound waves for
inspection.
Frequency range in the ultrasonic range (20 kHz – 1000
MHz.)
Sound waves need medium for travel.
UT does not propagate well in AIR.
Wave characteristics tends to change whenever it
encounters with a pocket of air, change in the impedance
or change in composition of the medium.
Changes in sound path can give useful information
based on the physical properties of the target.
 PRINCIPLE
Ultrasonic testing uses elastic waves which occur as
a result of the restoring force between the particles
when the material is elastically displaced. The
excitation of these kind of elastic waves make
changes in stress inside the material causing a
change in the wave characteristics like frequency,
speed, phase, and particle displacement.

Elastic waves can be in the form of bulk waves or

guided waves.
WAVE MODES IN UT –SURFACE
EXCITATION
 WAVE MODES IN UT
LONGITUDINAL WAVE : The vibration of the particles is
ALONG the wave propagation direction.


 WAVE MODES IN UT
SHEAR / TRANSVERSE WAVE: The vibration of the particles is
PERPENDICULAR to the wave propagation direction.


 WAVE MODES IN UT
GUIDED WAVES (Raleigh/surface, Lamb/plate, Love,
….)
travel along the structures and are more complex in nature.


 PRINCIPLE
The bulk modes are non-dispersive in nature (their velocity
being constant with frequency).

Guided waves travel at the boundaries (surface waves) of a material or

between the boundaries of thin materials (Lamb waves) and they exhibit
an infinite number of wave modes because of their dispersive nature
(i.e., the wave speed is a function of frequency).
 GUIDEDWAVES: BASIC REQUIREMENT
There are different types of guided waves but
they all have a common denominator:
• A well defined boundary

At an interface

Pipe ID and OD
DEFINITION OF GUIDED WAVES

• A guided wave is an ultrasonic wave in

which its energy is completely
concentrated between the boundaries that
guide the wave along the structure
without much attenuation. Its direction of
propagation is parallel to these
boundaries
 Basic requirements
Thickness is comparable to wavelength

What happens when thickness >>>> wavelength??

 WHY GUIDED WAVES
Conventional UT measures the wall thickness at a spot, while
Guided Wave Ultrasonics can identify locations of metal loss
along a length of the pipe
Conventional Ultrasonic Flange
Test

Localized Weld
Inspection Metal loss Metal loss

Conventional ultrasonic inspection provides a local thickness

measurement Guided Wave

100%
Weld Metal loss Metal loss
Inspection

GWUT Inspection provides detection of both internal and external

corrosion .
 WHY GUIDED WAVES
100% volumetric coverage
Can test long distances of pipe from a single access point
Both internal and external corrosion can be identified
Example:
10” pipe, 12m length with 2 simple supports
Standard UT = 0.027% area coverage
Guided Wave ~ 100% area coverage
In-service Inspection
Current commercial systems are packaged in a small number of durable
components. The systems are easily transported and quickly setup in the
field with preliminary results available at the time of the test
Temperature
Can be used on in-service pipelines
 product flow
 WHY GUIDED WAVES
Rapid screening
 Has developed into an effective screening tool useful
in locating and ranking areas of corrosion; thereby
minimizing the amount of follow-up inspection needed
to determine the integrity of piping.
Acts as filter: point out areas where more attention is needed

Reduced access costs

Think of costs for:
Removing insulation
Digging
Operating underwater
 WHY GUIDED WAVES
 Features of Guided Waves
 Capacity to travel long distances without substantial
attenuation.
 Mode behavior depends on factors like incident angle,
frequency, etc.
 Multimodal, dispersive: modal features frequency-
dependent.
 Choice of modes according to appropriate structure
and dispersion
– characteristics crucial for long range inspection.
 Ability to interrogate regions that are inaccessible
(hidden)
 Can measure material and structural properties.
 TYPES OF GUIDED WAVES
 Rayleigh waves: Free waves which propagate along the
surface of a solid. The traction forces must vanish on the
surface and the wave amplitude decays away from the
surface (Rayleigh, 1885).
 Love waves: Love waves exist in a layered material having
different elastic properties (Love, 1926).
 Lamb waves: Lamb waves are waves of plane strain
solutions that occur in a free plate (Lamb, 1917) in which
the forces must be zero on the top and bottom surface of the
plate.
 Stoneley waves: Stoneley waves are free waves which
occur at an interface between two media (Stoneley, 1924).
GUIDED WAVE TYPE
 GENERATING GUIDED WAVES
Piezoelectric transducers
Angle beam
Array

Advantages
Direct control
Low cost
Permanent installation

Limitations
Liquid couplant needed
 GENERATING GUIDED WAVES
EMATS

Advantages
SH waves in plates
Lamb waves in plates
Torsional and longitudinal waves in pipes
No couplant needed
Possibility of non contact
Disadvantages
Conductive materials only
High cost instrumentation
High voltage pulsers needed
GENERATING GUIDED WAVES
Magnetostricitve Transducers
Advantages
T and L waves in pipes
SH and lamb waves in plates
Permanent installation

Disadvantages
Bonding needed
Conductive materials only
Ferromagnetic materials only
Ultrasonic Guided Waves in Plates
 Arise due to interferences, between the propagating,
reflected and mode converted ultrasonic wave modes,
caused by the boundaries of the wave guide.

 Ex: Lamb waves (plate guided ultrasonic waves) in plate-

like structures.
 GUIDED WAVES IN PLATES
SH waves travel via a
shearing motion parallel
to the surface and
perpendicular to the
direction of propagation.

Lamb waves travel via

flexural/compressional
motion perpendicular
and parallel to surface.

Anti - Symmetric Mode • Three basic wave mode types :

– Shear Horizontal
• Symmetric
• anti-symmetric
– Longitudinal
Symmetric Mode
• Symmetric
• anti-symmetric
For a given plate thickness and frequency, many modes can exist. In plate-like
structures, two types of Lamb modes are possible – Symmetric and Anti-symmetric,
based on the respective wave structure with respect to the mid plane of the plate. These
two modes can be defined on the basis of following equations
 UNIQUE CHARACTERISTICS
DISPERSION
• Dispersion is a behaviour of the wave velocity to
be dependent on one or more of the following:
– Geometry, Frequency, Orientation, Amplitude

As a result of dispersion, there is a distortion in the

shape and velocity of the wave packet from the
velocity of the individual waves as it propagates over
large distances.
The propagation of the guided Lamb waves is characterized
by the phase (cp) and group velocities (cg).

Phase velocity is the speed of the wave phase of a particular

frequency in a wave packet. It can be defined in terms of
wavelength λ and frequency f as

Phase velocity can also be represented in terms of wave’s

angular frequency ω and wave number k as
The group velocity describes the speed with which the
overall wave packet (or envelop) travels.
Phase and group velocity are related to each other through
the following equation (Graff, 1973; Rose, 1999)
 DISPERSION CURVES
The ‘Dispersion curve’ gives us the possible combinations of phase
velocity and frequency within the structure. Dispersion curves show all
the constructive interference zones that occurs as the waves reflects
inside the bounded structure, showing the kinds of waves and modes
that could actually propagate under a given set of conditions.

Each curve represents a specific mode, which is conventionally

named as A0, A1, S0, S1, etc. where A and S denotes anti symmetric
modes and symmetric modes respectively and their numbers indicate
their harmonic order.

It can be used to describe and predict the relationship between

frequency, phase/group velocity and thickness
 Phase velocity dispersion curve
for a 3 mm aluminium plate
obtained using DISPERSE
(Pavlakovic, 1997).

Group velocity dispersion curve

for a 3 mm aluminium plate
obtained using DISPERSE
(Pavlakovic, 1997).
 GUIDED WAVES IN PLATES
MODE SHAPES-Understanding the wave structure
Mode shapes are another aspect of guided waves that is essential to NDT.

Depicts the distribution of particle displacements through the thickness of the plate.

They are distinguished by considering the components of their displacement mode shapes.

Displacement mode shapes of

(a)A0 mode, b) S0 mode in a 3 mm
Aluminium plate at 100 kHz

S0 mode is dominated by the ‘in-plane’ particle displacement at this frequency which is

almost constant through the plate thickness, the ‘out-of-plane’ displacement is dominant and
constant through the plate thickness for the A0 mode. Both these modes have particle
displacements parallel to the plane of wave propagation.
Few differences between conventional ultrasonic
waves and guided waves are:
Guided waves are bulk waves; therefore the entire volume of the pipe
is inspected.

Frequencies used in guided wave inspection are much lower than

conventional ultrasonic testing; therefore the wave lengths are much
longer and are scattered instead of reflected from changes in the
dimension of the wave guide.

The pipe acts as a wave guide, permitting the waves to travel long
distances.
The waves can be introduced at a single location:
When introduced with piezoelectric crystals an array of transducers
are used.
 Coils of wire are used to create vibrations in the pipe via the
magnetostrictive effect exhibited by ferromagnetic materials
 Limitations
Complicated evaluation of data by highly trained operators is
required because of the complex signals involved.

Dimensions of corrosion (wall loss, longitudinal length, profile)

cannot be directly determined

Significant corrosion can be missed, especially localized damage

The scattered signal cannot be directly equated to a specific area or

volume of loss due to a lack of an absolute calibration standard

Many field conditions exist that limit the distances that can be
effectively inspected and that cause artifacts which can complicate
analysis.
 Limitations
RANGE
5-150 meters depending on local
conditions
• Factors affecting range
– geometry
– general pipe conditions
– material inside pipe
– embedding material
 Limitations
Difficult geometry

Only test through one bend in each direction

• Flanges and Ts represent the end of the test

• In general complex piping will be more

difficult to inspect
 Limitations
General condition of pipe
 Limitations
Effect of Pipe Contents
Gases - no effect
• Liquids
– Almost no effect on the torsional mode
• Sludge
– Heavy viscous deposits in the pipe which
attenuate the signal and reduce the test range
 Limitations
Attenuative Wrappings

Bitumen
Polyethylene
Factory applied insulation
CASE STDY
Quantitative assessment of through-thickness crack size
based on Lamb wave scattering in aluminium plates
Displacement magnitude of Lamb wave propagation
a)Single PZT actuation
b)Dual-PZT actuation
 Benchmark

With defect

@ P1 using single PZT actuation @ P1 using dual PZT actuation

 GUIDED WAVES IN PIPES

Longitudinal

Torsional

Flexural
GUIDED WAVES IN CYLINDERS
DISPERSION CURVE FOR PIPES
 GUIDED WAVES IN PIPES

Group velocity curve for a 3 inch steel pipe with a thickness of 6mm
and a outer dia of 88.7mm
Mode shape of F(1,1) mode for alumina 9.45 mm in diameter at 0.25 MHz
frequency
 GUIDED WAVE APPLICATIONS
 Non-destructive Evaluation
– Corrosion, Bond quality, Cracks, …….
 Process Monitoring
– Viscosity, Density, Level, Temperature
 Material Characterization
– Stiffness, Density, Visco-elastic, Ply-lay-up
 Data Communication
Complex Pipeline inspection
Pipeline inspection
Aerospace application
aerospace
Bridge cable inspection
Bridge cable insection
aerospace
 The power and durability of today’s
electronics has made it possible to field the
GWUT system in a compact package

Laptop
computer

Umbilical cable
connecting
electronics to
transducers

Pressurized bladder
containing the array of Field
piezoelectric crystals electronics

70
Level sensing
• • Guided Ultrasonic Waves have a significant
• potential in NDT.
• • The use of guided ultrasonic waves allows
• an NDT manager to :
• – Inspect inaccessible regions and components
• – Increase speed and decrease cost of inspection
• – Measure material and process parameters.
• Summary
• • The number of types guided wave modes are many and
• classified based on the displacement behavior or the
• waveguide types.
• • For each guided wave mode type, many orders of modes
• can be generated and received.
• • The dispersion effects of these modes have to be
• considered before using these modes.
• • The key advantage of detecting defects in in accessible
• regions or the ability to inspect large regions in short time
• are the key benefits of the technique.
• • Applications in pipeline, rail, tank bottom floor, aircraft
• structures, etc. have been successful using guided waves.
 To Remember
I. Review of ultrasonic wave propagation principles
a) Equation of motion
b) Reflection and Refraction
c) Normal and oblique incidence
d) Wave scattering

II. Dispersion principles

a) Group and Phase velocity concepts
b) Mode conversion
 To Remember
III. Generation of Guided Waves
a) Transducers
b) Transducer design
c) Angle bean transducer
EMAT transducer
Magnetostricitve transducer
PVDF transducer
IV. Waves in Plates
a) Numerical solution
b) Wave structure analysis
c) Lamb waves
d) SH waves
e) Dispersion curves
f) Multilayered plates
 To Remember
V. Waves in Rods
a) Longitudinal waves
b) Torsional
c) Flexural

VI. Waves in Pipes and Cylinders

a) Circumferential guided waves
b) Longitudinal waves
1.axisymmetric modes
2.flexural modes
C. Leaky guide waves in liquid loaded pipes