Skip to main content
Log in

Ultrasonic Nondestructive Testing Accurate Sizing and Locating Technique Based on Time-of-Flight-Diffraction Method

  • Acoustic Methods
  • Published:
Russian Journal of Nondestructive Testing Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The ultrasonic time-of-flight-diffraction (TOFD) method is a widely used flaw sizing and locating method. A signal identification technique is used to improve the arrival time resolution of a TOFD signal and to size and locate flaws more accurately. The ultrasonic signal is decomposed into several intrinsic mode functions by empirical mode decomposition. Some modes are selected to reconstruct a new signal considering their frequencies and energy. The reconstructed signal has a better signal-to-noise ratio and enhanced flaw information. A Hilbert transform is conducted to get the envelope and exact arrival time of the signal. All vertical flaws can be detected correctly with average sizing and locating accuracy of 0.08 mm in the laboratory. The deeper the flaw is located, the higher the accuracy. The blind area of TOFD is reduced to 2.5 mm under the surface.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  1. Baskaran, G., Balasubramaniam, K., and Krishnamurthy, C.V., Ultrasonic TOFD Flaw Sizing and Imaging in Thin Plates Using Embedded Signal Identification Technique (ESIT), Insight, 2004, vol. 46, no.9, pp. 521–526.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Nobukazu, I. and Hiroaki, H., Examination of Flaw Detection Near the Surface by the Ultrasonic TOFD Method, Key Eng. Mater., 2001, vols. 270–273, pp. 378–383.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Danilov, V.N. and Ermolov, I.N., Computer Simulation of Echo Signals from a Lateral Cylindrical Hole, Rus. J. of Nondestructive Testing, 2001, vol. 37, no.8, pp. 525–531.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Loutridis, S.J., Damage Detection in Gear Systems Using Empirical Mode Decomposition, Eng. Struct., 2004, vol. 26, pp. 1833–1841.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Sung, S., Tai, H.M., and Chen, C.W., Locating Defects of a Gear System by the Technique of Wavelet Transform, Mech. Machine Theory, 2000, vol. 35, pp. 1169–1182.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Zahran, O., Shihab, S., and Al-Nuaimy, W., Discussion of the Ability of Defect Detection Classification in Weld Inspection Using Ultrasonic Time-of-Flight Diffraction Technique, in Proceedings of the Conf. PREP-2004 (United Kingdom, 2004).

  7. Betti, F., Zappavigna, G., and Pedrinzani, C., Accuracy Capability of TOFD Technique in Ultrasonic Examination of Welds, www.ndt.net/article/wcndt00/papers/idn634, 2000.

  8. Da, M. and Schlurmann, T., Performance and Limitations of the Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT) with an Application to Irregular Water Waves, Ocean Eng., 2004, vol. 31, pp. 1783–1834.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Huang, N.E., Shen, Zh., Long, S.R., et al., The Empirical Mode Decomposition and the Hilbert Spectrum for Nonlinear and Non-Stationary Time Series Analysis, Proc. R. Soc. London, A, 1998, pp. 903–995.

  10. Flandrin, P, Rilling, G., and Goncalves, P., Empirical Mode Decomposition as a Filter Bank, IEEE Signal Process. Lett., 2004, vol. 11, no.2, pp. 112–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Additional information

__________

From Defektoskopiya, Vol. 41, No. 9, 2005, pp. 57–68.

Original English Text Copyright © 2005 by Tianlu Chen, Peiwen Que, Oi Zhang, Qingkun Liu.

The text was submitted by the authors in English.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Chen, T., Que, P., Zhang, O. et al. Ultrasonic Nondestructive Testing Accurate Sizing and Locating Technique Based on Time-of-Flight-Diffraction Method. Russ J Nondestruct Test 41, 594–601 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11181-006-0006-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11181-006-0006-7

Keywords

Navigation