Numerical Study on Ultrasonic Guided Waves for the Inspection of Polygonal Drill Pipes

The polygonal drill pipe is one of the most critical yet weakest part in a high-torque drill machine. The inspection of a polygonal drill pipe to avoid its failure and thus to ensure safe operation of the drilling machine is of great importance. However, the current most frequently used ultrasonic inspection method is time-consuming and inefficient when dealing with a polygonal drill pipe, which is normally up to several meters. There is an urgent need to develop an efficient method to inspect polygonal drill pipes. In this paper, an ultrasonic guided wave technique is proposed to inspect polygonal drill pipes. Dispersion curves of polygonal drill pipes are firstly derived by using the semi-analytical finite element method. The ALID (absorbing layer using increasing damping) technique is applied to eliminate unwanted boundary reflections. The propagation characteristics of ultrasonic guided waves in normal, symmetrically damaged, and asymmetrically damaged polygonal drill pipes are studied. The results have shown that the ultrasonic guided wave technique is a promising and effective method for the inspection of polygonal drill pipes.