In this paper, we investigate the diffraction tomography for quantitative imaging damages of partly through-thickness holes with various shapes in isotropic plates by using converted and non-converted scattered Lamb waves generated nu- merically. Finite element simulations are carried out to provide the scattered wave data. The validity of the finite element model is confirmed by the comparison of scattering directivity pattern (SDP) of circle blind hole damage between the finite element simulations and the analytical results. The imaging method is based on a theoretical relation between the one-dimensional (1D) Fourier transform of the scattered projection and two-dimensional (2D) spatial Fourier transform of the scattering object. A quantitative image of the damage is obtained by carrying out the 2D inverse Fourier transform of the scattering object. The proposed approach employs a circle transducer network containing forward and backward projections, which lead to so-called transmission mode (TMDT) and reflection mode diffraction tomography (RMDT), respectively. The reconstructed results of the two projections for a non-converted SO scattered mode are investigated to illuminate the influence of the scattering field data. The results show that Lamb wave diffraction tomography using the combination of TMDT and RMDT improves the imaging effect compared with by using only the TMDT or RMDT. The scattered data of the converted A0 mode are also used to assess the performance of the diffraction tomography method. It is found that the circle and elliptical shaped damages can still be reasonably identified from the reconstructed images while the reconstructed results of other complex shaped damages like crisscross rectangles and racecourse are relatively poor.
The research aims at validating the ability of topological imaging to blind holes in isotropic plates using Lamb waves. Due to the defect is not symmetric around the mid- plane of the plate, the effect of Lamb mode conversion will have to be taken into account. The imaging method is based on two computations of ultrasonic fields, one forward and one adjoint, performed for the defect-free reference medium. The excited signal and scattered Lamb waves caused by the blind hole, are used as emitting sources to compute the forward problem and the adjoint problem, respectively. With the help of the finite element simulations, the natural refocusing process of the multimode Lamb waves at the defect location is visually demonstrated by the transient acoustic field snapshots at the different moments to strengthen the physical mechanism of the topological imaging method. The numerical results demonstrate that topological imaging has relatively stronger applicability to the blind hole in contrast to classical Delay And Sum (DAS) method and Time Reversal (TR) method. The topological imaging could handle complex Lamb wave signals containing mode conversions without the imaging quality being affected. The proposed imaging method presents a certain developing potential for detecting and imaging asymmetric defects in plate-like configurations using Lamb waves.
P91 steel is an important bearing material used in nuclear power plants. The study of its mechanical degradation behavior is important for ensuring safe operation. The relationship between the dislocation density of P91 steel under different strains and the corresponding nonlinear ultrasonic parameter β was studied. The dislocation density of strained samples was estimated by X-ray diffraction. Nonlinear ultrasonic testing was conducted to evaluate β, showing that this value increased with increasing dislocation density induced by different tensile elongations. It was shown that the ultrasonic secondharmonic generation technique can effectively evaluate the degradation behavior of metallic materials, and the prediction of the residual life of bearing parts in service can be made based on β and the dislocation density.