Pipeline Damage Detection Using Piezoceramic Transducers: Numerical Analyses with Experimental Validation

Shi Yan; Ying Li; Shuai Zhang; Gangbing Song; Putian Zhao

doi:10.3390/s18072106

Pipeline Damage Detection Using Piezoceramic Transducers: Numerical Analyses with Experimental Validation

Sensors (Basel). 2018 Jun 30;18(7):2106. doi: 10.3390/s18072106.

Authors

Shi Yan^{1

2}, Ying Li^{3

4

5}, Shuai Zhang⁶, Gangbing Song⁷, Putian Zhao⁸

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Infrastructure Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, Liaoning, China. cesyan@sjzu.edu.cn.
² School of Civil Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, Shenyang 110168, Liaoning, China. cesyan@sjzu.edu.cn.
³ Faculty of Infrastructure Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, Liaoning, China. liying-1205@163.com.
⁴ School of Civil Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, Shenyang 110168, Liaoning, China. liying-1205@163.com.
⁵ School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Shenyang University, Shenyang 110044, Liaoning, China. liying-1205@163.com.
⁶ School of Civil Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, Shenyang 110168, Liaoning, China. zhangshuai112358@sina.com.
⁷ Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204, USA. Gsong@uh.edu.
⁸ School of Civil Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, Shenyang 110168, Liaoning, China. icerose1205@sina.com.

Abstract

This paper aims to set up a finite element model using piezoelectric elements to realize pipeline structure damage identification analysis. Ultrasonic guided wave propagation characteristics and damage identification of pipeline structures are analyzed by the ABAQUS software. The pulse-echo method using an L(0, 2) mode impulse guided wave with a central frequency of 70 kHz is applied to evaluate different size circumferential cracks. An experiment was performed for the validation of the numerical analysis results. Both of the results show that the proposed FEM model with piezoelectric elements can efficiently reveal the dynamic behaviors, which can be used in much more precise numerical simulations than the equivalent dynamic displacement loading method.

Keywords: circumferential cracks; guided waves; piezoceramic transducers; piezoelectric elements; pipeline structural damage identification; pulse-echo analysis method.