A complete FE simulation tools for NDT inspections with piezoelectric transducers

An ultrasonic inspection system involves the generation, propagation and reception of short transient signals. Piezoelectric transducers and particularly phased arrays are increasingly used in ultrasonic Non Destructive Testing (NDT) because of their ability to focus or deflect an ultrasonic beam in parts of complex geometries. To accurately model the sensitivity in transmission and reception of such sensors, a transient Finite Element (FE) model has been developed including not only piezoelectric effects but also all electrical elements such as pulser/receiver system and cabling. A particular attention is devoted to the different boundary conditions used to model the emission and reception regimes of the sensor. The definition of the inspection domain is made easier by a decomposition domain technique allowing, in the same time, local time stepping and efficient absorbing layers to optimize calculation cost. In order to illustrate all the capabilities of this simulation tool, several cases of NDT inspections are then presented through the analysis of the ultrasonic beam snapshots and the electrical signal read on the receiver.