frequency modulated by Hanning window is used for the excitation.
The material properties of steel are the modulus of elasticity
E¼211 GPa, Poisson ratio t ¼0.3, and density q ¼7800 kg/m3.
Total computing time is set as 0.15 ms to achieve the wave
propagation in the pipe. An iteration step of 0.8106 s
is adopted based on calculation precision according to
Dt < 0:8 ðLe=VgÞ [15], where Le is the size of element
and Vg is the group velocity. Integrated pipes are used here for exploring the energy flow in the elbows. The transient
wave stress distribution in the elbows is obtained by using
ANSYS. Figure 2 shows the snapshot of the transient stress distribution
for bent pipes of different geometries while L (0, 2)
mode travels across the first bend.
As shown in Fig. 2, when guided waves travel across the first
elbow of three types of pipe, the energy of guided waves tends to
focus on extrados of the elbow. All the pipes share the common
propagation characteristic which means that pipe configuration
difference has no significant influence on the guided waves propagation
across the first elbow.
Contrarily (as shown in Fig. 3), the characteristics of wave
propagation are totally different when guided waves travel across
the second bend. The two perspectives indicate the snapshot of
transient stress distribution. When guided waves propagate across
the second elbow of space-Z pipe, the energy distributes in the
extrados primarily, with only a little energy passing along the
intrados. For U pipe, from the perspectives, there is energy flow
distribution both in the extra and intrados, and it is more in the
intrados. However, for plane-Z pipe, from the inside and outside
perspectives, the energy focuses on the extrados when guided
waves travel across the second bend.
Simulation results indicate that bend defect detection sensitivity
depends on the pipe configuration. Defect detection for the second
elbow in space-Z and plane-Z pipe is more sensitive in the extrados
than in the intrados, while U pipe has relatively high detection
sensitivity in the intrados.