Angle Beam Nondestructive Testing
Application ID: 78811
Angle beam ultrasonic units are used for nondestructive testing (NDT) of solid objects, such as metal pipes. They are especially useful for detecting flaws in and around welding areas, such as pores, small cracks, lack of fusion, etc. Angle beam NDT is often used where the straight beam testing struggles to find defects, for example, when the cracks are vertical and thin and thus not detectable because of small amount of reflection. The operating principle of angle beam NDT lies in the conversion of a longitudinal (compression) wave sent by the transducer into a refracted shear (transverse) wave in the test sample. The shear wave is then reflected by the flaws in the test object. Compared to longitudinal waves, shear waves have lower attenuation and shorter wavelength, which makes them capable of detecting smaller defects.
In this tutorial, the Elastic Waves, Time Explicit physics interfaces is used to model wave propagation in linear elastic media. The interface solves the linear elastic wave equation written in the velocity-strain form using the discontinuous Galerkin finite element method (dG-FEM) and an explicit time integration scheme. This approach is well suited for solving large-scale transient problems. The piezoelectric part of the transducer is modeled with the Piezoelectric Effect, Time Explicit multiphysics feature that couples the Elastic Waves, Time Explicit and the Electrostatics physics interfaces. The model takes advantage of a geometry assembly and a nonconforming mesh.
This model example illustrates applications of this type that would nominally be built using the following products:
however, additional products may be required to completely define and model it. Furthermore, this example may also be defined and modeled using components from the following product combinations:
- COMSOL Multiphysics® et
- soit le Module Acoustics, Module MEMS, ou Module Structural Mechanics et
- soit le Module AC/DC, Module MEMS, Module Plasma, ou Module Semiconductor
The combination of COMSOL® products required to model your application depends on several factors and may include boundary conditions, material properties, physics interfaces, and part libraries. Particular functionality may be common to several products. To determine the right combination of products for your modeling needs, review the Grille des Spécifications and make use of a free evaluation license. The COMSOL Sales and Support teams are available for answering any questions you may have regarding this.