Crack Detection in Pipes with Different Bend Angles Based on Ultrasonic Guided Wave

Pipeline plays an indispensable role in process industries,because the progressing crack-like defects of in it may result in serious accidents and significant economic losses.Therefore,it is essential to detect the cracks occurred in pipelines.The axial crack-like defects in elbows with different angle are inspected by using the T(0,1)mode guided waves,in which different configurations including 45°,90°,135°and 180°(straight pipe)are considered respectively.Firstly,the detection sensitivity for different defect location is experimentally investigated.After that,finite element simulation is used to explore the propagation behaviors of T(0,1)mode in different bend structures.Simulation and experiment results show that the crack in different areas of the elbow can affect the detection sensitivity.It can be found that the detection sensitivity of crack in the middle area of the elbow is higher compared to the extrados and intrados of the elbow.Finally,the mode conversion is also investigated when the T(0,1)crosses the bend,and the results show that bend is a key factor to the mode conversion phenomenon which presents between the T(0,1)mode and F(1,2)mode.