Inspection of pipelines using the first longitudinal guided wave mode

Inspection of cylindrical structures using the first longitudinal Ultrasonic Guided Wave (UGW) mode has so far been predominantly neglected. This is due to its attenuative and dispersive behaviour, at common UGW operating frequencies (20-100 kHz). However, with the current knowledge on the level of attenuation in the first longitudinal wave mode and dispersion compensation techniques, the first longitudinal guided wave mode no longer need to be neglected. Furthermore, the first longitudinal guided wave mode has higher number of non-axisymmetric modes compared to other axisymmetric modes in the operating frequency. This will enhance the flaw sizing capability which makes the first longitudinal guided wave mode a viable prospect for UGW inspection of cylindrical structures. This study has been performed to investigate the potential of exciting the first longitudinal guided wave mode in isolation. Numerical investigations have been conducted to investigate the pure excitation of the first longitudinal guided wave mode. It has been shown that the first longitudinal guided wave mode can be used in UGW inspection effectively in isolation by adopting transducers with out of plane vibration for excitation. This can reduces the cost and weight of UGW inspection tooling. Numerical results are empirically validated. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).