Micro-Sized Pinhole Inspection with Segmented Time Reversal and High-Order Modes Cluster Lamb Waves Based on EMATs

Pinhole corrosion is difficult to discover through conventional ultrasonic guided waves inspection, particularly for micro-sized pinholes less than 1 mm in diameter. This study proposes a new micro-sized pinhole inspection method based on segmented time reversal (STR) and high-order modes cluster (HOMC) Lamb waves. First, the principle of defect echo enhancement using STR is introduced. Conventional and STR inspection experiments were conducted on aluminum plates with a thickness of 3 mm and defects with different diameters and depths. The parameters of the segment window are discussed in detail. The results indicate that the proposed method had an amplitude four times larger than of conventional ultrasonic guided waves inspection method for pinhole defect detection and could detect micro-sized pinhole defects as small as 0.5 mm in diameter and 0.5 mm in depth. Moreover, the segment window location and width (5−10 times width of the conventional excitation signal) did not affect the detection sensitivity. The combination of low-power and STR is more conducive to detection in different environments, indicating the robustness of the proposed method. Compared with conventional ultrasonic guided wave inspection methods, the proposed method can detect much smaller defect echoes usually obscured by noise that are difficult to detect with a lower excitation power and thus this study would be a good reference for pinhole defect detection.