A new nonlinear elastic time reversal acoustic method for the identification and localisation of stress corrosion cracking in welded plate-like structures – A simulation study

In order to reduce the costs related to corrosion damage in aircraft structures, it is vital to develop new robust, accurate and reliable damage detection methods. A possible answer to this problem is offered by newly developed nonlinear ultrasonic techniques, which monitors the nonlinear elastic wave propagation behaviour introduced by damage, to detect its presence and location. In this paper, a new nonlinear time reversal technique is presented for the detection and localization of a scattered zone (damage) in a multi-material medium. In particular, numerical findings on a friction stir-welded aluminium plate-like structure are reported. Damage was introduced in the heat affected zone and modelled using a multi-scale material constitutive model (Preisach–Mayergoyz space). Studies were conducted for two different transducer configurations. Particular attention was devoted to find the optimum time-reversed window to be re-emitted in the structures. The methodology was compared with traditional time-reversal acoustics (TRA), showing significant improvements. While the traditional TRA was not able to clearly localise the damage, the developed technique identified in a clear manner the faulted zone, showing its robustness to locate and characterize nonlinear sources, in presence of a multi-material medium.