Modelling of the ultrasonic field by the angular spectrum method in presence of interface.

We present a numerical modelling of the harmonic sound in two isotropic media, one liquid and the other solid separated by a plane interface. This numerical modelling is carried out by the angular spectrum method. This latter is applied to calculate the displacement potential generated by a rectangular transducer with a Gaussian profile and with an uniform profile. The rigorous modelling of the field needed to find the optimal parameters of the decomposition according to the transducer aperture and the ultrasonic wave frequency.

Importance of the near Lamb mode imaging of multilayered composite plates.

In recent years Lamb waves are being used for internal defect detection in multilayered composite plates. Different Lamb modes generate various stress levels in different layers. As a result, all Lamb modes are not equally sensitive to internal defects of various layers. A number of studies have been carried out to identify which Lamb mode is most effective for detecting defects in a specific layer. However, one shortcoming of the Lamb wave inspection technique is that in a symmetrically layered composite plate stress and displacement magnitudes and energy distribution profiles for all Lamb modes are symmetric about the central plane of the plate. As a result, the ability of a Lamb mode to detect defects in a specific layer of the plate is identical to its ability to detect defects in the corresponding layer of mirror symmetry. Hence, from the Lamb wave generated image one cannot distinguish between the defects in these two layers of mirror symmetry. In this paper it is investigated how by fine-tuning the frequency and the striking angle of the incident beam in the neighborhood of a Lamb mode one can separately detect internal defects in layers of mirror symmetry in the upper and lower halves of a plate.

Modeling of transient deformation of piezoelectric ceramics [US NDE].

A method based on a finite-element analysis that permits the calculation and the visualization of deformations of ultrasonic transducers, in different configurations is presented. The method uses a Fourier series synthesis giving deformation of the free surface and electrical admittance for wide frequency bands by the use of finite-element procedures previously developed at Universite de Technologie de Compiegne (UTC). The method was originally developed for the monochromatic case. The authors report on the adaptation and validation of the method for the multifrequency excitation case, which is a more realistic approach used in the field of ultrasonic NDE. Several geometries were tested. In spite of the limitations of the method, due to the calculation requirements, the results show the role of the radial displacement behavior usually neglected in monodimensional analysis.