High frequency guided wave ultrasound measurements using low-cost equipment

Guided wave ultrasound can be applied to inspect large volumes of structures from a single transducer location and is particularly effective in one-dimensional such as rods, pipes rail. An application, which interest South Africa, the inspection rock bolts mining industry. The difficulty inspecting embedded rods that there rapid attenuation signals with distance. While guided systems generally operate at low frequencies (20 kHz 200 kHz), high frequency operation (1 MHz 10 MHz) offer some advantages when bolts. testing complicated by multi-modal propagation dispersion, require use sophisticated excitation signals, are not available equipment designed for conventional ultrasonic testing. It was therefore necessary develop measurement setup approach taken standard lab instruments wherever possible only purchase items unique this measurement, using very limited budget available. used perform measurements on rod confirmed theoretical predictions. These identified where modes propagate allow quantified.