This article aims to develop a pressure sensing method by utilizing both a contacting active sensor and a non-contacting laser ultrasound transmitter. An overloaded stress in an industrial pressure tank such as a nuclear reactor may cause a catastrophic explosion; thus, it is essential to monitor the mechanical stress in a reliable manner for the structural safety. Among many different types of stress sensing methods, ultrasound sensing has been attractive due to its non-invasive measurement feature. For the recent decades, subsurface longitudinal (SSL) ultrasonic wave has been widely used since it is not only less dependent on the internal medium and the surface condition, but also has the fastest wave speed without wave distortion. In our work, laser source and Aluminum nitride (AlN) wafer are used to generate and to receive SSL ultrasonic waves, respectively. In order to increase the photoacoustic efficacy, a composite of carbon-soot nanoparticles (CSNP) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was attached onto the intermediate wedge at the transmitter side. The photoacoustic experiment results demonstrate a reasonable linear relationship between the stress level and the time-of-flight variation of the propagated wave signal.
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