A Magnetostrictive Patch Transducer System For Circumferential Monitoring Of Water Supply Pipes

This research presents a magnetostrictive patch transducer(MPT) system generating guided waves, which can be installed in water supply pipes, for health monitoring along the circumferential direction. The system consists of a pair of MPTs for guided wave transduction, a portable pulser/receiver device and a data acquisition set. The MPT is tightly bonded onto the pipe surface and designed to generate and measure the fundamental shear-horizontal guided wave mode (SH0 mode) effectively. The MPT output is enhanced using the specially made coils and magnets. The pulser/receiver device and the data acquisition set are controlled by a laptop. The system performance is experimentally confirmed using various water pipe supply specimens. According to the results, it is shown that the proposed MPT system can detect defects on the circumferential path of the pips. For long term monitoring of actual water pipe lines, the system will be improved by further researches.