Abstract: When the angular-profile tuning method is used for the detection of small defects in a pipe, the defect is considered as a new passive guided wave source. The focusing phenomenon is analyzed by intercepting the defect reflected waves and conversion modes, which gives the information of the angular-profile for the passive wave source fields. Based on the information, the time delays and amplitude factors for a guided wave array are computed. The Finite Element Analysis and experimental results show that this method can be used to reduce the computation efforts and also to cater for the variations of the pipe parameters, the transducer array and the detection frequency during the detection processing, which can contribute to the popularization and application of this method.

Key words: Angular-profile tuning, Defect inspection, Energy focusing, Guided waves, Machining efficiency Energy consumption Complex surface Tool path optimization Genetic algorithm