Surface Crack Identification on a Cylinder Using the Signal Enhancement of the Scanning Laser Line Source Method

Abstract

Cylindrical structures play an important role in industrial fields. The surface crack is a typical defect in the cylindrical structures. Non-destructive surface crack detection of these structures is critical to the safe operation of the equipment. In this study, the signal enhancement of the scanning laser line source (SLLS) method is investigated by a numerical simulation method to identify the location and depth of the surface crack in the aluminum cylinder. A fully coupled explicit finite element model is established to study the signal enhancement of cylindrical surface waves on the aluminum cylinder. The simulation results indicate that the signal enhancement of the SLLS is more sensitive to the surface crack of a cylinder than that of the scanning laser detection (SLD) because of the wider span and higher peak. Due to the phase shift characteristics of surface waves on the cylinder, the maximum peak-to-peak amplitude of signal enhancement in the SLLS method (the SLLS peak) is affected by the detection position and diameter of the cylinder. Therefore, an optimization approach for detection position in SLLS is proposed for the location of surface crack on the cylinder. The locations of the surface crack on the solid cylinders with different diameters are investigated using simulated laser ultrasonic field data. Moreover, we find that the SLLS peak for signal enhancement can effectively respond to the crack depth within a limited scope which is dependent on the directivity pattern of the longitudinal waves.