Electromagnetic Ultrasonic Shear-Horizontal Wave to Detect Corrosion Defect of Flat Steel for Grounding Device of Transmission Pole Tower

Detecting defects in grounded flat steel is essential for ensuring the safety and reliability of transmission tower grounding devices. However, traditional inspection methods, such as physical excavation and verification, are costly and time-consuming. This paper proposes a corrosion defect detection method for flat steel transmission tower grounding devices based on electromagnetic ultrasonic SH waves. In addition, using commercial software, a three-dimensional finite element simulation model of grounded flat steel with simulated pitting corrosion defects is constructed. The specified displacements applied to multiple surface sources mimic the horizontal shear vibrations generated by the electromagnetic ultrasonic transducer on the surface of the grounded flat steel during actual inspection. A simulation was used to investigate the propagation and attenuation characteristics of shear-horizontal ultrasonic SH0guided waves for simulated corrosion defects with various geometric configurations in grounded flat steel. The simulation investigated the propagation and attenuation characteristics of the SH0 wave in grounded flat steel and the detection of various defects for linear analysis of the results. The simulation results show that the attenuation of the electromagnetic ultrasonic guided wave is small, at only 0.0016 dB/mm, and the displacement amplitude of the echo signal decreases with the increase of the SH0 wave propagation distance. Increasing the depth and length of corrosion defects increases the echo signal amplitude. At the same time, the width of corrosion defects has little effect on the echo amplitude. Finally, a flat steel defect detection experiment was conducted, and the experimental results fit with the simulation to verify the accuracy of the simulation model. This detection method introduces a new idea for the on-site detection and quantitative identification of corrosion defects in grounded flat steel, which has significant reference value and can provide a more effective and economical method for ensuring the safety and dependability of transmission tower grounding devices.