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US 7,171,854 B2Granted
Nondestructive inspection apparatus and nondestructive inspection method using elastic guided wave
AssigneeHitachi, Ltd.
InventorsYoshiaki Nagashima, Masahiro Koike, Tetsuya Matsui
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Abstract
A nondestructive inspection apparatus using a guided wave having waveform forming part that form a transmission waveform; a transmitting element for generating a guided wave within an object under inspection; a receiving element for receiving a reflection wave of the guided wave from an inspection region of the object under inspection; an analyzing element for outputting inspection information which is acquired based upon the reception waveform of the reflection wave received by the receiving element; and a display for displaying the inspection information.
Claims18
A nondestructive inspection apparatus using a guided wave, comprising:
- waveform forming means for forming a transmission waveform by employing a reference waveform;
- a transmitting element for generating a guided wave within an object under inspection based upon said transmission waveform;
- a receiving element for receiving a reflection wave of said guided wave from an inspection region of said object under inspection;
- analyzing means for outputting inspection information which is acquired based upon the reception waveform of said reflection wave received by said receiving element;
- and
- display means for displaying thereon said inspection information,
- wherein said waveform forming means further comprises:
- means for computing a calculated waveform from said reference waveform which propagates as said guided wave over a total distance between said transmitting element and said inspection region and between said inspection region and said receiving element;
- and means for forming the transmission waveform by applying time-inversion to said calculated waveform.
6 more elements
A nondestructive inspection apparatus using a guided wave, comprising:
- waveform forming means for forming a transmission waveform by employing a reference waveform;
- a transmitting element for generating a guided wave within an object under inspection based upon said transmission waveform;
- a receiving element for receiving a reflection wave of said guided wave from an inspection region of said object under inspection;
- analyzing means for outputting inspection information which is acquired based upon the reception waveform of said reflection wave received by said receiving element;
- and
- display means for displaying thereon said inspection information, wherein said waveform forming means comprises:
- means for forming at least one transmission waveform with respect to each of inspection segments, while the inspection region of said object under inspection is subdivided into a plurality of said inspection segments along a propagation direction of said guided wave.
4 more elements
A nondestructive inspection method comprising:
- a step of calculating reception waveforms when an arbitrary waveform propagates as a guided wave for a predetermined distance;
- a step for forming a transmission waveform by employing a reference waveform;
- a step for generating a guided wave within an object under inspection based upon said transmission waveform;
- a step for receiving a reflection wave of said guided wave from an inspection region of said object under inspection by a receiving element;
- a step for acquiring inspection information which is acquired based upon the reception waveform of said reflection wave received by said receiving element;
- and
- a step for displaying thereon said inspection information, wherein said waveform forming means further comprises:
- means for computing a calculated waveform from said reference waveform which propagates as said guided wave over a total distance between said transmitting element and said inspection region and between said inspection region and said receiving element;
- and means for forming the transmission waveform by applying time-inversion to said calculated waveform.
6 more elements
A nondestructive inspection method comprising:
- a step for forming a transmission waveform by employing a reference waveform;
- a step for generating a guided wave within an object under inspection based upon said transmission waveform;
- a step for receiving a reflection wave of said guided wave from an inspection region of said object under inspection by a receiving element;
- a step for acquiring inspection information which is acquired based upon the reception waveform of said reflection wave received by said receiving element;
- a step for displaying thereon said inspection information;
- a step for subdividing the inspection region of said object under inspection into a plurality of inspection segments along a propagation direction of said guided wave;
- a step for forming said transmission waveforms every said inspection segment by setting said inspection segments as the inspection region, and for allocating at least one transmission waveform with respect to at least one of said inspection segments;
- a step for receiving a reflection waveform from every said inspection segment by employing said allocated transmission wave;
- and
- a step for extracting a reception waveform portion reflected from the position corresponding to said inspection segment from said received reflection wave.
7 more elements
A nondestructive inspection apparatus using a guided wave, comprising:
- waveform forming means for forming a transmission waveform by employing a reference waveform;
- a transmitting element for generating a guided wave within an object under inspection based upon said transmission waveform;
- a receiving element for receiving a reflection wave of said guided wave from an inspection region of said object under inspection;
- analyzing means for outputting inspection information which is acquired based upon the reception waveform of said reflection wave received by said receiving element;
- and
- display means for displaying thereon said inspection information,
- wherein said waveform forming means further comprises:
- means for computing a calculated waveform from said reference waveform which propagates as said guided wave over a total distance between said transmitting element and said inspection region and between said inspection region and said receiving element:
- and means for forming the transmission waveform by applying time-inversion to said calculated waveform, and
- wherein said object under inspection corresponds to a pipe arrangement;
- a plurality of both said transmitting element and said receiving element and wherein said receiving element is arranged around said pipe arrangement in a ring shape;
- and said nondestructive inspection apparatus further comprises:
- element switching means for switching connections made between said transmitting elements and said receiving elements with respect to both said guided wave transmitting means and said guided wave receiving means.
10 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.