School of Electronics and Information, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434023, China.
National Demonstration Center for Experimental Electrical & Electronic Education, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434023, China.
Sensors (Basel). 2022 Sep 21;22(19):7133. doi: 10.3390/s22197133.
Butt welding is extensively applied in long-distance oil and gas pipelines, and it is of great significance to conduct non-destructive ultrasonic testing of girth welds in order to avoid leakage and safety accidents during pipeline production and operation. In view of the limitations of large transducer size, single fixed beam angle, low detection resolution and high cost of conventional ultrasonic inspection technologies, a 16-channel piezoelectric micro ultrasonic transducer (PMUT) array probe was developed through theoretical analysis and structural optimization design. After the probe impedance characterization, the experimental results show that the theoretical model can effectively guide the design of the ultrasonic transducer array, offering the maximum operating frequency deviation of less than 5%. The ultrasonic echo performance tests indicate that the average -6 dB bandwidth of the PMUT array probe can be up to 77.9%. In addition, the fabricated PMUT array probe has been used to successfully detect five common internal defects in pipeline girth welds. Due to the multiple micro array elements, flexible handling of each element, large bandwidth and high resolution of defect detection, the designed PMUT array probe can provide a good application potential in structural health monitoring and medical ultrasound imaging fields.
对接焊接广泛应用于长输油气管道，对管道环焊缝进行无损超声检测具有重要意义，可避免管道生产和运行过程中的泄漏和安全事故。针对传统超声检测技术中大换能器尺寸、单一固定波束角、检测分辨率低和成本高的局限性，通过理论分析和结构优化设计，开发了一种 16 通道压电微超声换能器（PMUT）阵列探头。在对探头阻抗进行特征描述后，实验结果表明，该理论模型可有效指导超声换能器阵列的设计，最大工作频率偏差小于 5%。超声回波性能测试表明，PMUT 阵列探头的平均-6dB 带宽可达 77.9%。此外，所制作的 PMUT 阵列探头已成功用于检测管道环焊缝中的五种常见内部缺陷。由于采用了多个微阵列元件，每个元件的操作灵活，缺陷检测的带宽大、分辨率高，因此设计的 PMUT 阵列探头在结构健康监测和医学超声成像领域具有良好的应用潜力。
