Detection of structural defects in pipes using time reversal of guided waves

Author

O´Donoughue, Nicholas ; Harley, Joel ; Moura, JoséM F. ; Jin, Yuanwei

Author_Institution

Electr. & Comput. Eng., Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA, USA

fYear

2009

fDate

1-4 Nov. 2009

Firstpage

1683

Lastpage

1686

Abstract

Structural health monitoring of buried pipelines is of vital importance as infrastructures age. Ultrasonic guided waves are a popular method for inspecting buried pipes, due to their potential for long propagation. Unfortunately, the large number of wave modes present, and the effects of dispersion, in a pipeline make analysis of the received signals difficult. We plan to use Time Reversal Acoustics to compensate for these complex signals, and improve performance for the detection of faults in a pipeline. We will present theoretical performance results for conventional and Time Reversal detectors, verified with simulations conducted in PZFlex. Time Reversal shows a potential for a reduction in the power requirements of a fault detection system.

Keywords

acoustic signal detection; fault diagnosis; inspection; pipes; structural engineering; ultrasonic propagation; ultrasonic waves; buried pipe defect detection; complex signal compensation; fault detection system; structural health monitoring; time reversal detectors; ultrasonic guided wave time reversal acoustics; Acoustic propagation; Acoustic signal detection; Detectors; Dispersion; Fault detection; Frequency; Natural gas; Pipelines; Thin wall structures; Transducers; PZFlex; Time Reversal; buried pipelines; dispersion; structural health monitoring;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Signals, Systems and Computers, 2009 Conference Record of the Forty-Third Asilomar Conference on

Conference_Location

Pacific Grove, CA

ISSN

1058-6393

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-5825-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ACSSC.2009.5469779

Filename

5469779