Stress measurement of aero-engine thin-walled catheter based on ultrasonic guided wave

A pipeline system made of catheters is used for liquid-gas transportation in aero-engines. It is important to measure the residual stresses, such as the assembly stress in this system, as they influence performance and lifetime. Compared to other testing techniques, ultrasonic measurement methods based on acoustic-elastic effects can better solve problems. For the above requirements, this paper researches an aero-engine thin-wall catheter's assembly stress measurement method based on ultrasonic guided waves's acoustic, elastic effect. The propagation and dispersion characteristics of guided ultrasonic waves in the catheter were studied. Then, the excitation frequency, guided wave mode, and single-mode excitation mode of the simulation model were determined. Next, a finite element simulation model was established for simulation experiments. In order to reduce the influence of sampling rate and working environment noise on the measurement accuracy of assembly stress, the ultrasonic guided wave signal was processed by the wavelet threshold method. A good noise reduction effect was obtained by determining the wavelet base and the number of decomposition layers. Finally, an experimental platform was built to measure the assembly stress of thin-walled catheters. The maximum measurement error of the assembly stress of a thin-walled catheter was 21.1 MPa, which verified the feasibility of the measurement method. This study provides a promising method for accurately measuring the assembly stress of thin-walled catheters in aero-engines.