A method of estimation for the area and direction of pipe crack

Abstract

Crack direction will affect the ultrasonic wave reflected from it. Firstly, the correlation between crack direction and the reflected energy of ultrasonic is analyzed. Then, a mathematical model of crack direction and its reflected energy is developed due to the theory and methods of function approximation. Finally, aiming at the problem that the crack area must be known when using the model to estimate the crack direction, By observing the probability distribution of reflected wave energy of cracks with different areas and directions at different measurement distances, Using its law and mathematical model, an algorithm for estimating crack area and crack direction is designed. According to the related experiments, the study confirmed that both the estimation errors of the crack area and direction by the method are 5.25% and 8.21%, respectively.