Critical Excitation of the Fundamental Quasi-Shear Mode Wave in Waveguide Bars for Elevated Temperature Applications

The safety of critical pressure equipment in elevated temperature is increasingly important. Moreover, the on-line monitoring method is potentially useful to improve their safety. A waveguide bar system can enable monitoring of critical equipment working in elevated temperature using reliable ultrasonic technology. Among the waveguide bar system, the matching mechanism of the transducer and the waveguide bar is crucial to propagate the pure fundamental quasi-shear mode (shorten for SH0*) wave. In the present research, the loading line sources that can excite pure SH0* wave are investigated and the anti-plane shear loading source is selected. The critical values about the geometric dimensions of the junctions between the piezoelectric transducer and the waveguide bar are explored by simulation and experiments. On the condition that the excitation sources satisfy the critical values, the loading can be approximated to an anti-plane shear one to excite the pure SH0* wave. Some waveguide bar systems are designed based on the simulated critical values and some experiments at high temperature are carried out. The experimental results verify that the designed waveguide bar systems can excite the pure SH0* wave at elevated temperatures, which verify the reliability of the simulated critical results.