The reflection of guided waves from simple supports in pipes

Successful ultrasonic guided wave detection of flaws at support locations relies on the ability to distinguish between the reflection produced by a simple support on an undamaged pipe and the reflection produced by pipe flaws. Consequently, it is essential to know how the reflections produced by simple supports behave; very little work has so far been reported on this subject. Through finite element simulations and experiments, this study develops a systematic understanding of how ultrasonic guided waves propagating along a pipe, in particular the T(0, 1) mode, interact with simple supports. It is shown that, unlike the T(0, 1) mode in a free pipe, the torsional mode in a supported region has a cut-off frequency, below which it will not propagate; below this frequency the T(0, 1) reflection coefficient is large, and it quickly reduces beyond the cut-off.