JP5709357B2 - Ultrasonic flaw detection apparatus and ultrasonic flaw detection method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an ultrasonic flaw detection apparatus and an ultrasonic flaw detection method suitable for ultrasonic flaw detection, for example, ultrasonic flaw detection performed on stainless steel welds.

  For example, ultrasonic testing (UT) is known as a method for nondestructively inspecting defects such as cracks generated inside a welded portion of metal. One method of such an ultrasonic flaw detection method is a phased array method. For example, a plurality of transducers arranged in one direction or in a matrix are individually controlled, and the timing of oscillating each transducer is shifted to generate a composite wave of ultrasonic beams emitted from each transducer. By receiving and analyzing the reflected wave or diffracted wave when this synthesized wave is applied to any inspection target position of the inspection target, the presence or absence of defects such as cracks at the inspection target position, the size of the defect, etc. It is a method of inspection. In particular, in the case of inspecting a welded portion, a two-probe type flaw detection apparatus that performs transmission and reception with separate vibrators is often used in order to reduce noise in the material.

JP 2007-322350 A

  However, for example, in the conventional two-probe type phased array method, when each of the transmitting probe and the receiving probe is composed of a plurality of transducers arranged in one direction, it can be placed at an arbitrary position. There is a problem that the ultrasonic waves cannot be focused. For this reason, a transducer in which the transducers constituting the transmission probe and the reception probe are arranged in a matrix has been used. Therefore, the size of the probe tends to increase, and it is necessary to provide a driving device for each transducer. This increases the size of the driving device and the complexity of processing.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic flaw detection apparatus and an ultrasonic flaw detection method capable of downsizing the apparatus and simplifying control contents.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention employs the following means.
The present invention relates to an ultrasonic flaw detection by a two-probe method comprising a transmission probe in which a plurality of transducers are arranged in one direction and a reception probe in which a plurality of transducers are arranged in one direction. The transmission probe and the reception probe are arranged side by side in the arrangement direction of the transducers constituting them, and are arranged on an arrangement surface inclined in the arrangement direction. The transmitting probe emits ultrasonic waves toward the inside of the inspection object along the arrangement direction, and the arrangement surface is inclined with respect to a bottom surface that contacts the inspection object; to provide an ultrasonic flaw detector that is.

According to the present invention, a transmission probe in which a plurality of transducers are arranged in one direction and a reception probe in which a plurality of transducers are arranged in one direction are included in the transducers constituting the transducers. They are arranged side by side in the arrangement direction.
In this way, by arranging the transducers constituting the transmission probe and the reception probe in a row in the transducer arrangement direction, the conventional phased transducers arranged in a matrix are arranged. Compared to an array ultrasonic flaw detector, the number of transducers can be reduced, and the number of drive circuits that drive each transducer can be reduced. Thereby, simplification of control and size reduction of the apparatus can be achieved.

  By the way, when it is considered to reduce the number of vibrators arranged in a matrix, for example, it is conceivable to reduce the number of columns and rows of the matrix. However, how to reduce the number, whether to arrange the transmission probe and the reception probe separately, and further separate the transmission probe and the reception probe. In the case of providing, it is necessary to determine various conditions such as how to arrange them. Further, when such an arrangement is taken into consideration, it is desirable that the arrangement be such that a more effective flaw detection result can be obtained with as few vibrators as possible. In particular, in the conventional two-probe type flaw detection apparatus, if each of the transmitting probe and the receiving probe is composed of transducers arranged in one direction, the focal depth is constant. Since there arises a problem that flaw detection cannot be performed, it is important to consider the arrangement of transducers and the arrangement of probes so as to solve this problem.

  The inventors of the present application have considered the above points, and as a result, a conventional two-probe type flaw detection apparatus including a plurality of transducers each having a transmission probe and a reception probe arranged in one direction. Causes a problem that flaw detection cannot be performed at a certain depth of focus because the transmitting probe and the receiving probe are arranged so that the arrangement directions of the transducers intersect each other. As a result, the present inventors have come up with the present invention in which the transmitting probe and the receiving probe are arranged in a line along the arrangement of the transducers. By adopting such an arrangement, even in a two-probe type flaw detection device in which transducers for transmission and reception are separately provided, the refraction angle and depth of focus of the ultrasonic wave are arbitrarily changed. be able to. As described above, the present invention focuses on an arrangement and a configuration that can effectively perform flaw detection by eliminating disadvantages in flaw detection, and can freely adjust both the refraction angle and the focal depth. There is an effect that it can be adjusted.

In the ultrasonic flaw detection apparatus, and the bottom surface, comprises a support member having a said arrangement surface, wherein the transmission for probe and probe for the reception, also be fixedly arranged on a common said support member Good.

As described above, the positional relationship between the transmission probe and the reception probe can be kept constant by fixing and arranging the transmission probe and the reception probe on the common support member. . Thus, by scanning the support member, the transmitting probe and the receiving probe can be easily moved while maintaining a constant positional relationship with each other, and the refraction angle of the ultrasonic beam is also increased. And control regarding the depth of focus can be simplified.
The present invention includes a transmission probe in which a plurality of transducers are arranged in one direction, a reception probe in which a plurality of transducers are arranged in one direction, and a support member, and the support member includes The transmission probe comprising: a bottom surface in contact with an inspection object; and an arrangement surface on which the transmission probe and the reception probe are arranged, and an inclined surface inclined with respect to the bottom surface. The transmitter and the receiving probe are arranged side by side in the arrangement direction of the transducers constituting them, and are arranged along the inclination direction of the arrangement surface, and the transmitting probe is Provided is an ultrasonic flaw detector that emits ultrasonic waves toward the inside of the inspection object along the arrangement direction.

  In the ultrasonic flaw detection apparatus, each transducer included in the transmission probe and the reception probe may be curved with a predetermined curvature in a direction orthogonal to the arrangement direction.

  By adding the curvature in this way, it is possible to obtain a high focusing effect of the ultrasonic beam by changing the ultrasonic wave from a linear shape to a point-shaped beam shape at the focal position.

  In the ultrasonic flaw detector, the curvature of the transducer of the transmitting probe may be different from the curvature of the transducer of the receiving probe.

  For example, the curvature is determined by the positional relationship between the region where the beam is to be focused and the transducer. In the present invention, the transducer of the transmitter probe and the transducer of the receiver probe are arranged side by side along the arrangement direction thereof, so that the transducer from the transducer of the transmitter to the focusing position is arranged. The distance is different from the distance from the transducer of the receiving probe to the focusing position. Therefore, the beam can be focused at a desired position by changing the respective curvatures according to this distance.

The present invention relates to a transmitting probe in which a plurality of transducers are arranged in one direction and a receiving probe in which a plurality of transducers are arranged in one direction. The ultrasonic waves are emitted from the transmitting probe toward the inside of the inspection target along the arrangement direction of these transducers, arranged side by side along the arrangement direction on the arrangement surface inclined in the direction. The ultrasonic inspection method by the two-probe method in which the arrangement surface is an inclined surface inclined with respect to the bottom surface in contact with the inspection object is provided.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the size of the apparatus and simplify the contents of control.

1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an ultrasonic flaw detector according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is the figure which showed the structure of the probe which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is the flowchart which showed the procedure of the flaw detection by the ultrasonic flaw detector which concerns on the position embodiment of this invention. It is the figure which showed the mode of the ultrasonic beam during a flaw detection inspection. It is the figure which showed the case where the transducer | vibrator of a transmission probe and the transducer | vibrator of a reception probe are curving with the same curvature.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of an ultrasonic flaw detection apparatus and an ultrasonic flaw detection method according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an ultrasonic flaw detector according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the ultrasonic flaw detector 10 includes a probe 11 having a plurality of transducers and a controller 20 that controls the probe 11.

As shown in FIG. 2, the probe 11 includes a transmitting probe 14 in which a plurality of transducers 13 are arranged in one direction, and a receiving probe 16 in which a plurality of transducers 15 are arranged in one direction. And a support member 17 that supports the transmission probe 14 and the reception probe 16.
The transmission probe 14 and the reception probe 16 are arranged side by side in the arrangement direction of the transducers 13 and 15 constituting them. Here, both the transmission probe 14 and the reception probe 16 are arranged on the slope of the support member 17. However, the arrangement direction of the vibrator 13 and the arrangement direction of the vibrator 15 need only be the same when viewed in plan on the XY plane (corresponding to the bottom surface of the support member 17), as in this embodiment. The transmitting probe 14 and the receiving probe 16 do not have to be arranged on the same plane. For example, the plane including the transmission probe 14 and the plane including the reception probe 16 may intersect at a predetermined angle.
The vibrators 13 and 15 are arranged along the emission direction of the ultrasonic beam. In other words, the transmission probe 14 emits ultrasonic waves toward the inside of the inspection target so as to follow the arrangement direction of the transducers 13.

  The vibrators 13 and 15 are composed of piezoelectric elements, and generate vibrations according to electrical signals, and also generate electrical signals according to vibrations received from the outside. Each of the vibrators 13 and 15 is a so-called phased array, in which an incident angle when transmitting an ultrasonic wave and a refraction angle when receiving a reflected wave are both variable. The incident angle and the refraction angle of each of the vibrators 13 and 15 are adjusted by the control device 20, respectively.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the control device 20 detects the signal by a signal generator 21 that generates a driving electric signal for vibrating each transducer of the transmission probe and each transducer of the reception probe. The apparatus includes a reflected signal receiving unit 22 that receives an electrical signal corresponding to the vibration that is generated, and an analysis unit 23 that analyzes the received electrical signal. In addition, a display device 30 is connected to the control device 20, and an analysis result by the analysis unit 23 is displayed.

Next, the operation of the ultrasonic flaw detector will be described with reference to FIG.
First, as shown in FIG. 4, the probe 11 is set at an appropriate position of the inspection object (step SA1 in FIG. 3), and then the position estimated to be defective in the inspection object is the inspection object. The position is set (step SA2 in FIG. 3).

  Next, a delay pattern corresponding to the beam shape desired to be emitted from the transmission probe 14 is generated by the signal generation unit 21, and an electric drive signal based on this delay pattern is generated by each transducer 13 of the transmission probe 14. Given to.

As a result, ultrasonic waves are emitted from each transducer 13 at a timing corresponding to each delay time, and an ultrasonic beam that is a composite wave propagates toward the position set as the inspection target position (FIG. 3). Step SA3). If a flaw or the like has occurred at this position, the reflected wave reflected by this flaw is received by each transducer 15 of the receiving probe 16 (step SA4 in FIG. 3). In each transducer 15, an electrical signal corresponding to the reflected wave is generated, and this electrical signal is given to the analysis unit 23 via the reflected wave receiving unit 22.
The analysis unit 23 analyzes the electrical signal received from the reflected wave reception unit 22 to perform sizing of defects such as cracks occurring in the inspection target, for example, position detection, size detection, and the like (FIG. 3). Step SA5).

  Then, until the scan is completed within a predetermined range, the inspection target position is updated as needed in step SA2, and flaw detection is performed at each position (steps SA2 to SA5). When the scan is completed within the predetermined range (“YES” in step SA6 in FIG. 3), the analysis unit 23 outputs the analysis result to the display device 30. Thereby, the flaw detection result is displayed on the screen of the display device 30 (step SA7 in FIG. 3).

  As described above, according to the ultrasonic flaw detection apparatus and the ultrasonic flaw detection method according to the present embodiment, the transmission probe 14 in which the plurality of transducers 13 are arranged in one direction, and the plurality of transducers 15. Are arranged side by side along the direction in which the transducers 13 and 15 constituting them are arranged, so that the ultrasonic waves of the phased array in which the transducers are arranged in a matrix form are arranged. Compared to the flaw detector, the number of transducers can be greatly reduced, and the number of drive circuits that drive each transducer can be reduced. Thereby, simplification of control, size reduction of the device, and cost reduction of the probe and the control device can be achieved.

  In addition, by arranging the transmitting probe 14 and the receiving probe 16 as described above, even in the case of a linear probe, in other words, transducers need not be arranged in a matrix. In addition, it is possible to arbitrarily change the refraction angle and the focal depth of the ultrasonic wave.

  In the present embodiment, the transmission probe 14 and the reception probe 16 are fixed to the common support member 17, but the present invention is not limited to this mode. For example, the transmission probe 14 and the reception probe 16 may be attached to separate support members. Moreover, you may arrange | position directly on the surface of a test object, without passing through a supporting member.

In the present embodiment, the transducers 13 and 15 included in the transmission probe 14 and the reception probe 16 may be curved with a predetermined curvature in a direction orthogonal to the arrangement direction thereof. In this case, as shown in FIG. 5, the transducer 13 of the transmission probe 14 and the transducer 15 of the reception probe 16 may be curved with the same curvature, or the transmission probe 14. The curvature of the transducer 13 may be different from the curvature of the transducer 15 of the receiving probe 16.
In this way, the ultrasonic focusing effect can be enhanced by bending the vibrators 13 and 15 with a predetermined curvature.

  In the present embodiment, the transmission probe 14 can function as a reception probe, and the reception probe 16 can function as a transmission probe. This transmission / reception switching depends on to which transducer the drive signal is output from the control device 20.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Ultrasonic flaw detector 11 Probe 13, 15 Transducer 14 Transmitting probe 16 Receiving probe 20 Control apparatus 21 Signal generation part 22 Reflected signal receiving part 23 Analysis part 30 Display

Claims (6)

An ultrasonic flaw detector using a two-probe method, comprising: a transmitting probe in which a plurality of transducers are arranged in one direction; and a receiving probe in which a plurality of transducers are arranged in one direction. ,
The transmitting probe and the receiving probe are arranged side by side in the arrangement direction of the transducers constituting them, and are arranged on an arrangement surface inclined in the arrangement direction ,
The transmission probe emits ultrasonic waves toward the inside of the inspection target along the arrangement direction ,
The ultrasonic flaw detection apparatus in which the arrangement surface is an inclined surface that is inclined with respect to a bottom surface in contact with the inspection object . A support member having the bottom surface and the arrangement surface;
The ultrasonic flaw detector according to claim 1, wherein the transmitting probe and the receiving probe are fixedly disposed on a common support member.   A transmission probe in which a plurality of transducers are arranged in one direction;
  A receiving probe in which a plurality of transducers are arranged in one direction;
  With support members
With
  The support member is
  A bottom surface in contact with the object to be inspected;
  An arrangement surface in which the transmitting probe and the receiving probe are arranged, and an inclined surface inclined with respect to the bottom surface;
With
  The transmitting probe and the receiving probe are arranged side by side in the arrangement direction of the transducers constituting them, and are arranged along the inclination direction of the arrangement surface,
  The transmission probe is an ultrasonic flaw detector that emits ultrasonic waves toward the inside of the inspection target along the arrangement direction. Each resonator the transmission probe and the probe for the receiving comprises the according to claims 1, is curved at a predetermined curvature in a direction orthogonal to the array direction to claim 3 Super Sonic flaw detector. The ultrasonic flaw detector according to claim 4 , wherein a curvature of the transducer of the transmission probe is different from a curvature of the transducer of the reception probe. A transmitting probe in which a plurality of transducers are arranged in one direction and a receiving probe in which a plurality of transducers are arranged in one direction are tilted in the arrangement direction of the transducers constituting them. On the arrangement surface , arranged side by side along the arrangement direction, and emitting ultrasonic waves from the transmission probe toward the inside of the inspection target along the arrangement direction of these transducers ,
The ultrasonic flaw detection method by a two-probe method in which the arrangement surface is an inclined surface inclined with respect to a bottom surface in contact with the inspection object .

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