Theoretical and experimental investigation of propagation of guide waves in cylindrical pipe filled with fluid

Cylindrical pipes are widely used in industries such as nuclear power plants and micro total analysis systems (mu TAS). The nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of such pipes is therefore crucial. NDE and ultrasonic flowmeters can be used to characterize pipes filled with fluid. Lafleur and Shields [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 97 (1995) 1435] and Pan et al. [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 113 (2003) 3209] theoretically and experimentally investigated a pipe filled with fluid, but they only considered the axisymmetrical mode. Commonly used ultrasonic transducer or laser ultrasonic methods, however, also generate non-axisymmetrical mode guide waves. Here, guide waves propagating in a cylindrical pipe filled with fluid were theoretically investigated. The results were used to develop a computer program for calculating the phase velocity of guide waves. The calculation results were then compared with experimental results.