Integrity Monitoring of Pressurized Gas Cylinders Using the SSUE Technique

Spread-Spectrum Ultrasonic Evaluation (SSUE) is a newly emerging technique for the global inspection and integrity monitoring of objects such as pressurized gas cylinders and structures such as bridges and airframes. This technique is based upon the measurement of an ultrasonic correlation signature which is sensitive to the structural and material properties of the test object. Recently, we applied the technique to pressurized gas cylinders and found that it was very sensitive to small changes in the cylinder. Specifically, we looked at the ability of the SSUE method to detect artificially-induced cracks at various points on the outside of the cylinder.