CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

This chapter consists of two parts. The first part details the steps in the design of the

hardware and experimental setup for generating and acquiring ultrasonic guided wave

signals. The second part of the chapter presents the signal processing, feature extraction,

classification and unsupervised techniques that are used to process the guided wave

signals.

3.1 EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

The key in the experimental setup are the transducers or sensors themselves as these

determine all other components required for the system. In a survey of commercially

available long range ultrasonic testing (LRUT) products, two companies, Guided

Ultrasonics Ltd. (UK) with their Wavemaker product and Plant Integrity Ltd. (UK)

with their Teletest product are the most used products in the market [25-26]. Their

products have been used in many applications and have also been used in research studies

[98-99]. The Teletest system was finally chosen as the product to purchase however the

cost of the entire system as a package is around GBP75, 000. Due to budget constraints, it

was decided to purchase those equipments that are highly specialised and the remaining

components are to be manufactured locally or in the laboratory. Hence, only the sensors

and its associated components are purchased from Plant Integrity Ltd.

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The equipments needed for excitation and acquisition of ultrasonic guided waves are

based on several published material [18][32] and also from the specifications of the

sensors from Plant Integrity Ltd. The complete system block diagram is shown in Figure

3.1. The following subsections provide details on how the experimental pipeline rig,

sensors and all other components in the system are designed.

Power Amplifier Tone Burst Pulser

- 30 - 300 V pp Arbitrary Waveform Generator

- Very Low Noise 10 Hz Pulse Repetition Freq.
25-125 kHz Pulse Frequency

Pipeline rig
Transmit/Receive - Riser bend with insulation
Switch - Progressive corrosion
simulation

Echo Amplifier Ultrasonic Sensors

DAQ /
Digital Oscilloscope MATLAB

Figure 3.1: Long range ultrasonic testing system block diagram

3.1.1 Transducers and Holders

Figure 3.2 (a) shows the piezoelectric transducers that were purchased from Plant

Integrity (PI) Ltd. Each transducers costs GBP250 and a total of 16 transducers was

acquired. The transducers are dry-coupled, non-resonant and operate using shear mode

oscillation. All transducers are mounted in modules as shown in Figure 3.2 (b). Each PI

module costs GBP450 and can accommodate 7 transducers for both longitudinal and

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torsional modes to be generated. Five transducers in longitudinal mode and two

transducers in torsional mode can be accommodated in one module.

Signal In Contact point

Torsional mode
Longitudinal mode
(a) (b)

Figure 3.2: Plant Integrity (PI) (a) Transducers and (b) Module with transducers

The modules are attached to a 6 inch inflatable collar as shown in Figure 3.3 (a). When

air is pumped into the collar the inner wall of the collar will press the transducers into

contact with the pipe. Each collar can hold 24 modules and this makes the individual

transducer elements to be spaced equally around the pipe. Each module is equipped with

5 pin LEMO connector where each pin connects to a particular transducer. Figure 3.3 (b)

illustrates how each module connector is connected to the next module so that all

modules are connected together to form a rings of transducers.

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 Module

Pipe

Pulse echo signal

IN and OUT

(a) (b)

Figure 3.3: (a) Inflatable collar with a single PI module attached (b) Illustration showing four modules and

their interconnections (only four modules shown).

Due to the cost constraints, only one module was purchased and this module was used as

a reference to fabricate similar modules here in Malaysia. Each module costs RM600

and a total of 16 modules were fabricated. These modules are not equipped with a LEMO

connector and its associated circuitry within each holder so the connection style shown in

Figure 3.3 (b) cannot be replicated. So the individual transducer wires will be connected

together to switch circuit which is detailed out later in the chapter.

The initial designed modules shown in Figure 3.4 (a) are for 5.5 inch diameter pipes.

Standard pipes (Schedule 40) are however 6 inches in diameter so the modules are

modified to fit these pipes as shown in Figure 3.4 (b). New design can be used for 5.5

inch and also 6 inch diameter pipes. Modification includes reduction in the width of the

holder by cutting to the required length as well an extra alignment screw to adjust

transducer alignment. The width can be increased back to original dimension for 5.5 inch

pipes using the removed parts which will be attached using screws.

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Sensor mounted in torsional
mode orientation Removable part

(a) (b)

Figure 3.4 (a) Fabricated Modules for 5.5 inch pipe (b) Modified module for 6 inch pipe.

Gold coated connectors are used along with coaxial cables to send the signals to the

sensors. The connectors, shown in Figure 3.5, are chosen to limit signal loss in order to

capture the low amplitude signals. The coaxial cable is carefully soldered onto the

connector and permanently crimped in place. 16 such connectors are prepared.

Figure 3.5: Gold coated connectors for signal transmission.

3.1.2 Power amplifier

The PI transducers must be excited by voltages above 250V peak to peak according to the

specifications datasheet. Experts for PI have stated that voltages in the range of 30 to 300

can be used depending on the strength of signal required. The power amplifier is needed

to amplify the tone burst signals to a sufficiently high voltage level for the sensors to

function. Another need for high voltages is to increase the signal to noise ratio.

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Rather than creating a power amplifier circuit, special readymade ICs are available that

perform the same functionality. After performing a market survey, only a few models

were found to be designed specifically to drive piezoelectric devices. Figure 3.6 shows

one such IC, the PA240 IC from APEX [99] that is capable of generating up to 660Vpp

in voltage when two ICs are used.

(a) (b)

Figure 3.6: (a) PA240 Power amplifier IC from APEX (b) Circuit implementation recommended by APEX.

Figure 3.7 shows the circuit design for the power amplifier circuit using the PA240 IC.

This circuit was designed using information in the PA240 IC datasheet as well as testing

performed using different configurations, gain and components values. The final design,

uses feedback resistor used is 100 k (R2) and the input resistor used is 10 k (R1). The

resultant gain of 10 is varied by using a variable resistor pot (VR1) which can then adjust

the output voltage to the required level. Various other diodes and capacitors are used for

protection circuits, supply voltage bypass and frequency stabilization. The power

amplifier IC is mounted on a heat sink as stated in the datasheet in order to radiate

thermal heat away from the amplifier. A positive and negative supply voltage for the

amplifier used is 140~150V DC which coincides with the maximum peak to peak output

voltage required.

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 Figure 3.7: Power amplifier circuit design

Standard bench DC power supplies can only generate a maximum voltage of 30V. Hence

in order to supply the 150V DC voltage, a circuit is designed and fabricated for this

purpose. Figure 3.8 shows the power supply circuit developed. A transformer will be

used to step-down mains AC supply and two diode bridge circuits will be used to rectify

the AC signals. Capacitors C1 and C2 is used to smooth the rectified signals to produce

constant DC voltages.

Figure 3.8: DC power supply circuit.

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Figure 3.9 shows the resultant power supply circuit where for safety and easy handling

the circuit is transferred into a box.

Figure 3.9: DC Power supply circuit with box casing.

3.1.3 Automatic transmits/receive switch

Pulse echo transmission mode is a very common and effective method of sending and

receiving guided ultrasonic signals. This means that transmission and receiving of signals

is done from a single cable. In order to perform this function, a switch is needed to

alternative between transmit and receiving depending on the signal status. Figure 3.10

shows the circuit of the automatic transmit/receive switch designed by Owens Jr. [100]

which is specially designed for high voltage applications and has been successfully used

in many articles [18][101].

Figure 3.10 shows that the high voltage tone burst signals (indicated as TRANSDUCER

in diagram) from the power amplifier and will be passed to the transducer terminals.

Diode bridge B-2 acts as a limiter and thus protects the next stage circuitry from high

voltage levels. In the absence of a tone burst, the echoes from the transducers are

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 transmitted through B-2 to the next stages of the circuit. Very low resistors should be

used for Diode Bridge B-2 so that most of the signal from the transducer is passed to the

next stages without any loss [100].

Figure 3.10: A

+utomatic Transmit-Receive Switch circuit diagram [100].

Figure 3.11 shows the PCB implementation of the automatic transmit and receive switch

where the power amplifier circuit is also included on the same PCB. Two sets of switch

circuits are included in the PCB in order to supply and receive signals from two rings of

transducers.

Power amplifier
IC
To Ring 1
High voltage
DC Supply To Ring 2
+/- 150V

Echo Ring 1

Echo Ring 2
Tone Burst IN +/-15V Supply
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 Figure 3.11: Power amplifier and switch with signals indicated.
3.1.4 Echo Amplifier

The echo amplifier is a very important stage in the ultrasonic testing system as it

determines whether the echoes can be detectable or not. This stage is needed because the

echo amplitudes are usually very low and therefore significant amplification is needed to

differentiate the echoes from noise. Literature mostly recommends the use of step-up

transformer or in most cases commercial available echo amplifier units are used

[27][101]. For this project, a similar effort taken by [103] is used were the amplification

is performed using cascade operational amplifiers as shown in Figure 3.12.

Figure 3.12: Echo amplifier circuit diagram [103].

In the testing phase, the use of 4 cascaded amplifiers used in Figure 3.12 was deemed

unnecessary. The protection diodes are also not needed since the amplifier is already

protected by using the switch diodes. Figure 3.13 shows the developed echo amplifier

circuit which uses two cascaded LM741 standard operational amplifiers each with a gain

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of 10. The developed circuit was sufficient to perform the necessary amplification when

test signals of amplitude 0.1V was used and produced signals with low distortion levels.

Figure 3.13: Echo amplifier circuit picture.

3.1.5 Interface board

The signals that is used to excite the transducers travels from the transmit/ receive switch

to the 16 transducers. The signal, travelling in a single wire, must be interfaced to the 16

transducers in a specially designed interface board. The Teletest unit has a special

interface board within each module that is used to link transducers in each module with

other modules as shown in Figure 3.14. These interface boards are connected together

using sophisticated LEMO connectors and each connection used are gold coated with

heavy shielding. The interface board developed for the LRUT system is a single external

unit using screw connectors.

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 Figure 33.14: Teletest Interface board circuit picture.

Figure 3.15 shows the circuit design for the interface board with three switches. When all

three switches are closed, all 16 transducers (T1 to T16) will be connected together and

echo signals from each transducer will be added together. This give
gives an indication on the

presence of defect and the location but no information on which quadrant of the pipe that

the defect exists. When switch SW2 is open, 8 transducers on the top half and 8 on

bottom half are connected separately. With all switches open, each quadrant of sensors

are connected separately thus possibl

possibly giving information on the location of a defect.

Figure 3.15: Interface board circuit diagram

Figure 3.16 shows a picture of the developed interface board which is enclosed in a

casing.

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 Figure 3.16: Developed Interface board

3.1.6 Tone burst generator

The PI transducers require excitation by tone burst signals which was explored in detail

in Chapter 2. The standard way of generating tone burst signals is through an arbitrary

waveform generator. Many researchers have used the Agilent 33210A 10 MHz arbitrary

generator successfully to produce tone burst signals [19][27]. This arbitrary waveform

generator is also used in the implementation of the LRUT system. Figure 3.17 shows a

picture of the waveform generator connected to the power amplifier and power supply

module boxes.

Figure 3.17: LRUT system components

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