The application of multielement piezoelectric transducers for ultrasonic testing of high-speed railway tracks
The article gets application multi-element piezoelectric transducers for ultrasonic high-speed flaw detection on railway tracks. The processing algorithm of echo-signals from multi-element piezoelectric transducers was offered to get additional information about defect location to apply solution considering risk level more validly and to increase crack detection probability. The obtained algorithm was realized as software package. A set of experiments was completed for fourth-elements inclined piezoelectric transducer on a standard pattern for various positions to verify the processing algorithm. The experiment has shown that the echo-signals behavior allows to use the obtained algorithm for multi-element transducers at the high-speed flaw detection. Also it has emerged that the echo-signal shape at one element of piezoelectric transducer strongly depends on refracting prism geometry and relation position elements on prism.