LAMB and sh wave transducer arrays for the inspection of large areas of thick plates

摘要

The motivation for this work is to develop a guided wave system to inspect a large area of a thick (5-25 mm) plate structure from a single test position. The immediate application area is in the testing of the floors and walls of steel storage tanks in the petrochemical industry. In order to test the floor of a tank, the tank must be emptied and cleaned. The advantage of using a large area testing system is to reduce the inspection time and therefore to reduce the amount of time for which the tank has to be out of service. A further application for which the proposed inspection system could prove advantageous is in the testing of structures clad with insulating material such as rockwool. In such cases the cladding only needs to be removed at the test locatin, as the use of guided waves permits the inspection of the surrounding structure beneath the cladding.