Pipeline Structural Health Monitoring Using Frequency Steerable Acoustic Transducers

Damage detection in pipe-like structures is an important task in structural integrity assessment. Guided waves (GWs) are widely used tools for pipe inspection owing to their useful properties, such as traveling long distances along the structure with minimal energy loss. In general, signal transmission and reception can be implemented by employing rings of transducers surrounding the pipe circumference. However, such systems require a large number of transducers and wiring, which is costly and complex. In addition, multi-mode excitation is practically inevitable in such inspection systems, and mode separation after measurements is a complex task. Frequency Steerable Acoustic Transducers (FSATs) which benefit from inherent directional properties to generate longitudinal and flexural waves at different angles as well as single-mode excitation features are an attractive solution to overcome such limitations.