Long-term stability of guided wave electromagnetic acoustic transducer systems
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Published version
Author(s)
Herdovics, B
Cegla, Frederic
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
This article evaluates the long-term stability of a Lorentz force guided wave electromagnetic acoustic transducer. The specific application of the investigated electromagnetic acoustic transducer is pipeline health monitoring using low-frequency (27 kHz) long-range torsional guided waves. There is a concern that repeated swings in the temperature of the structure can cause irreversible changes in the transduction mechanism and therefore pose a risk to the long-term stability of transducers. In this article we report on guided wave signals acquired on a custom-built transducer while it was exposed to more than 90 heating cycles. The highest temperature that was reached during cycling was 80°C and the measurements were acquired over a 14-month period. At the end of the 1-year period, the transducer phase had changed by 23.32° and its amplitude by 3.7%. However, this change was not gradual and most of the change occurred early on, before the highest temperature was first reached in the temperature cycling process. The observed change after this was 6.08° phase shift and 0.9% amplitude change. The possible sources of output changes were investigated, and it was found that the mechanical properties of the contact layer between the electromagnetic acoustic transducer and the pipe surface was very important. A soft silicone interlayer performed best and was able to reduce temperature-induced phase changes in the monitored signals from a maximum of 80 degrees phase change to about 20 degrees phase change, a fourfold reduction.
Date Issued
2020-01-01
Date Acceptance
2018-09-17
Citation
Structural Health Monitoring, 2020, 19 (1), pp.3-11
ISSN
1475-9217
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Start Page
3
End Page
11
Journal / Book Title
Structural Health Monitoring
Volume
19
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© 2018 The Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
License URL
Sponsor
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Grant Number
EP/K033565/1
Subjects
Science & Technology
Technology
Engineering, Multidisciplinary
Instruments & Instrumentation
Engineering
Electromagnetic acoustic transducer
structural health monitoring
long-term stability
temperature compensation
transducer compensation
MAGNETS
Acoustics
09 Engineering
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2018-10-19