Global crack detection using bispectral analysis

This paper describes a global non-destructive testing technique for detecting fatigue cracking in engineering components. The technique measures the mixing of two ultrasonic sinusoidal waves which are excited by a small piezoceramic disc bonded to the test structure. This input signal excites very high-order modes of vibration of the test structure within the ultrasonic frequency range. The response of the structure is measured by a second piezoceramic disc and the received waveform is analysed using the bispectrum signal processing technique. Frequency mixing occurs as a result of nonlinearities within the test structure and fatigue cracking is shown to produce a strong mixing effect. The bispectrum is shown to be particularly suitable for this application due to its known insensitivity to noise. Experimental results on steel beams are used to show that fatigue cracks, corresponding to a reduction in the beam section of 8%, can be detected. It is also shown that the bispectrum can be used to quantify the extent of the cracking. A simple nonlinear spring model is used to interpret the results and demonstrate the robustness of the bispectrum for this application.

[1]  T. Gasser,et al.  Statistical methods for investigating phase relations in stationary stochastic processes , 1971 .

[2]  M. Shensa,et al.  Cross modulation and intermodulation in amplifiers at high frequencies , 1972 .

[3]  K. S. Lii,et al.  Cross-Bispectrum Computation and Variance Estimation , 1981, TOMS.

[4]  M. Hinich.  Testing for Gaussianity and Linearity of a Stationary Time Series. , 1982 .

[5]  D. J. Ewins,et al.  Modal Testing: Theory and Practice , 1984 .

[6]  Chrysostomos L. Nikias,et al.  Bispectrum estimation: A parametric approach , 1985, IEEE Trans. Acoust. Speech Signal Process..

[7]  M.R. Raghuveer,et al.  Bispectrum estimation: A digital signal processing framework , 1987, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[8]  Melvin J. Hinich,et al.  A Test for Aliasing Using Bispectral Analysis , 1988 .

[9]  J. Achenbach,et al.  Ultrasonic Analysis of Nonlinear Response and Strength of Adhesive Bonds , 1991 .

[10]  Andrew Ball,et al.  Fault location in a framework structure using neural networks , 1993 .

[11]  Chrysostomos L. Nikias,et al.  Higher-order spectral analysis , 1993, Proceedings of the 15th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Societ.

[12]  Keith Worden,et al.  Pseudo-nonlinearities in engineering structures , 1994, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

[13]  Ward D. Rummel,et al.  Handbook of Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) Capability and Reliability , 1995 .

[14]  Paul R. White,et al.  The interpretation of the bispectra of vibration signals—: II. Experimental results and applications , 1995 .

[15]  Paul R. White,et al.  The interpretation of the bispectra of vibration signals—: I. Theory , 1995 .

[16]  Ian Howard,et al.  Higher-order spectral techniques for machine vibration condition monitoring , 1997 .

[17]  Paul R. White,et al.  BISPECTRAL ANALYSIS OF THE BILINEAR OSCILLATOR WITH APPLICATION TO THE DETECTION OF FATIGUE CRACKS , 1998 .

[18]  P. White,et al.  HIGHER-ORDER SPECTRA: THE BISPECTRUM AND TRISPECTRUM , 1998 .

[19]  Igor Yu. Solodov,et al.  Ultrasonics of non-linear contacts: propagation, reflection and NDE-applications , 1998 .

[20]  Hirsekorn,et al.  Assessment of the adhesion quality of fusion-welded silicon wafers with nonlinear ultrasound , 2000, Ultrasonics.

[21]  Alexander Sutin,et al.  Micro-damage diagnostics using Nonlinear Elastic Wave Spectroscopy (NEWS) , 2001 .

[22]  S. Hirsekorn.  Nonlinear transfer of ultrasound by adhesive joints : a theoretical description , 2001 .

[23]  A. F. Stronach,et al.  Third-order spectral techniques for the diagnosis of motor bearing condition using artificial neural networks , 2002 .

[24]  Yang Xiang,et al.  Detection and classification of flaws in concrete structure using bispectra and neural networks , 2002 .

[25]  Alexander Sutin,et al.  Sensitive imaging of an elastic nonlinear wave-scattering source in a solid , 2002 .

[26]  Thomas G. Habetler,et al.  An amplitude modulation detector for fault diagnosis in rolling element bearings , 2002, IEEE 2002 28th Annual Conference of the Industrial Electronics Society. IECON 02.

[27]  Ichiro Hagiwara,et al.  A Bispectrum Feature Extraction Enhanced Structure Damage Detection Approach , 2002 .

[28]  Peter Cawley,et al.  Practical long range guided wave testing: applications to pipes and rails , 2003 .

[29]  B W Drinkwater,et al.  The detectability of kissing bonds in adhesive joints using ultrasonic techniques. , 2003, Ultrasonics.

[30]  Paul R. White,et al.  Fatigue crack diagnostics: A comparison of the use of the complex bicoherence and its magnitude , 2005 .

[31]  Peter Cawley,et al.  Vibro‐Acoustic Modulation NDE Technique. Part 2: Experimental Study , 2005 .

[32]  Nonlinear acoustic scattering by a partially closed surface-breaking crack. , 2005, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[33]  Peter Cawley,et al.  A study of the vibro-acoustic modulation technique for the detection of cracks in metals , 2006 .

[34]  Athina P. Petropulu,et al.  Higher-order spectral analysis , 2006 .