Simulation Study on the Acoustic Field from Linear Phased Array Ultrasonic Transducer for Engine Cylinder Testing

Ultrasonic phased array inspection technology is widely used in nondestructive evaluation (NDE) applications and it has been proved to be an effective method for flaw detections in industry. In our study, this nondestructive evaluation method is proposed to detect the corrosion defects on engine cylinders. In order to demonstrate its feasibility, it is necessary to study the characteristics of the acoustic field produced by a linear phased array ultrasonic transducer in the engine cylinders. In this paper, according to multi-Gaussian beam model and ray acoustics theory, we derive the expression of the acoustic field from a linear phased array ultrasonic transducer under condition of the concave cylindrical interface on engine cylinder. The acoustic field simulations in the engine cylinders are carried out and analyzed. Our results indicate that the method of ultrasonic phased array inspection is feasible in the engine cylinder testing. Besides engine cylinders with different inside radius need different array element lengths to get best focusing beam and the optimal element length can be obtained by our simulation study.