Internal Stress Monitoring of In-Service Structural Steel Members with Ultrasonic Method

Internal stress in structural steel members is an important parameter for steel structures in their design, construction, and service stages. However, it is hard to measure via traditional approaches. Among the existing non-destructive testing (NDT) methods, the ultrasonic method has received the most research attention. Longitudinal critically refracted (Lcr) waves, which propagate parallel to the surface of the material within an effective depth, have shown great potential as an effective stress measurement approach. This paper presents a systematic non-destructive evaluation method to determine the internal stress in in-service structural steel members using Lcr waves. Based on theory of acoustoelasticity, a stress evaluation formula is derived. Factor of stress to acoustic time difference is used to describe the relationship between stress and measurable acoustic results. A testing facility is developed and used to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method. Two steel members are measured by using the proposed method and the traditional strain gauge method for verification. Parametric studies are performed on three steel members and the aluminum plate to investigate the factors that influence the testing results. The results show that the proposed method is effective and accurate for determining stress in in-service structural steel members.

[1]  A. N. Guz',et al.  The Physical Fundamentals of the Ultrasonic Nondestructive Stress Analysis of Solids , 2000 .

[2]  Yashar Javadi,et al.  Investigation of Clamping Effect on the Welding Sub-surface Residual Stress and Deformation by Using the Ultrasonic Stress Measurement and Finite Element Method , 2015 .

[3]  Yashar Javadi,et al.  Ultrasonic stress evaluation through thickness of a stainless steel pressure vessel , 2014 .

[4]  H. Palkowski,et al.  Investigation on the Residual Stress State of Drawn Tubes by Numerical Simulation and Neutron Diffraction Analysis , 2013, Materials.

[5]  P. Seppecher,et al.  Fluid Shock Wave Generation at Solid-Material Discontinuity Surfaces in Porous Media , 2011 .

[6]  C. Hakan Gür,et al.  Nondestructive investigation of the effect of quenching and tempering on medium-carbon low alloy steels , 2005 .

[7]  Tokuoka Tatsuo,et al.  Acoustical birefringence of ultrasonic waves in deformed isotropic elastic materials , 1968 .

[8]  M. A. Najafabadi,et al.  Nondestructive Evaluation of Welding Residual Stresses in Austenitic Stainless Steel Plates , 2014 .

[9]  Francesco dell’Isola,et al.  Linear plane wave propagation and normal transmission and reflection at discontinuity surfaces in second gradient 3D continua , 2012 .

[10]  J. Wert,et al.  Residual Stress Measurement and Analysis Using Ultrasonic Techniques , 1973 .

[11]  Yongchao Huang,et al.  An Experimental Study on the Performance of Piezoceramic-Based Smart Aggregate in Water Environment , 2014, IEEE Sensors Journal.

[12]  D. I. Crecraft,et al.  The measurement of applied and residual stresses in metals using ultrasonic waves , 1967 .

[13]  Francesco dell’Isola,et al.  Variational formulation of pre-stressed solid-fluid mixture theory, with an application to wave phenomena , 2008 .

[14]  Tiejun Liu,et al.  Feasibility of water seepage monitoring in concrete with embedded smart aggregates by P-wave travel time measurement , 2014 .

[15]  G. Corneloup,et al.  Combination of Longitudinal and Transverse Ultrasonic Waves for In Situ Control of the Tightening of Bolts , 2007 .

[16]  Ivan Giorgio,et al.  Interfaces in micromorphic materials: Wave transmission and reflection with numerical simulations , 2016 .

[17]  Corinne Mailhes,et al.  AStrion data validation of non-stationary wind turbine signals Topic: Condition monitoring (CM) methods and technologies , 2015 .

[18]  Zhihong Huang,et al.  Functional Piezocrystal Characterisation under Varying Conditions , 2015, Materials.

[19]  D. Bray,et al.  Measurement of acoustoelastic and third-order elastic constants for rail steel , 1976 .

[20]  Acoustical characterization of austenitic stainless steel welds for experimental and modeling NDT , 2005 .

[21]  A. A. Santos,et al.  Comparison of Acoustoelastic Methods to Evaluate Stresses in Steel Plates and Bars , 2002 .

[22]  J. Szelążek,et al.  Ultrasonic measurement of thermal stresses in continuously welded rails , 1992 .

[23]  Ser Tong Quek,et al.  Applications of Piezoelectric Materials in Structural Health Monitoring and Repair: Selected Research Examples , 2010, Materials.

[24]  Yashar Javadi,et al.  Effect of Heat Input Ratio on Residual Stress in Multipass Welding Using Finite Element Method and Ultrasonic Stress Measurement , 2015 .

[25]  M. Dassisti,et al.  Methods of Measuring Residual Stresses in Components , 2012 .

[26]  Shrinivas G. Joshi,et al.  Ultrasonic instrument for measuring bolt stress , 1984 .

[27]  D. S. Hughes,et al.  Variation of Elastic Moduli and Wave Velocity with Pressure and Temperature in Plastics , 1950 .

[28]  Sylvain Chatillon,et al.  Modeling of ultrasonic fields radiated by contact transducer in a component of irregular surface. , 2002, Ultrasonics.

[29]  Michele Dassisti,et al.  Methods of measuring residual stresses in components , 2012 .

[30]  Baldev Raj,et al.  Ultrasonic velocity measurements for estimation of grain size in austenitic stainless steel , 1995 .

[31]  N. Tebedge,et al.  Residual-stress measurement by the sectioning method , 1973 .

[32]  K Watanabe,et al.  Strain Gauge Method for Evaluating a Three-Dimensional Residual Strain State in ${\rm Nb}_{3}{\rm Sn}$ Wires , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity.

[33]  H. Altenbach,et al.  Acceleration waves and ellipticity in thermoelastic micropolar media , 2010 .

[34]  D. S. Hughes,et al.  Second-Order Elastic Deformation of Solids , 1953 .

[35]  O. Godin.  Wave refraction at an interface: Snell's law versus Chapman's law. , 2009, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[36]  D. Jiles,et al.  A New Method for Evaluation of Mechanical Stress Using the Reciprocal Amplitude of Magnetic Barkhausen Noise , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics.

[37]  David J. Smith,et al.  Development and experimental validation of the deep hole method for residual stress measurement , 1996 .

[38]  Don E. Bray,et al.  Subsurface stress evaluation in steel plates and bars using the LCR ultrasonic wave , 2001 .

[39]  Kyung-Young Jhang,et al.  Estimation of clamping force in high-tension bolts through ultrasonic velocity measurement. , 2006, Ultrasonics.

[40]  M. A. Najafabadi,et al.  Ultrasonic Evaluation of Welding Residual Stresses in Stainless Steel Pressure Vessel , 2013 .

[41]  Yongchao Huang,et al.  An experimental investigation on the health monitoring of concrete structures using piezoelectric transducers at various environmental temperatures , 2015 .