F113 Investigation of Ultrasonic Propagation in Metal Pipes for the Development of Clamp-on Steam Flowmeter

The transverse wave which propagates along the pipe is the critical problem for the ultrasound flow measurement technique. Since the signal to noise ratio of the received signal greatly depends on the pipe diameter, ultrasound propagation in metal pipes are analyzed by both numerical simulation and experimental approach. In order to attenuate the transverse wave, damping material is considered to be effective. The effect of the damping material on 50A and 100A pipes are also evaluated. The distribution of the acoustic intensity of 50A and 100A pipes are compared by the numerical simulation. The received waveforms of 50A and 100A pipes were compared in the air pressure condition by using a pair of the ultrasound transducers. Both results indicated that the transverse wave is effectively attenuated by the damping material in the 100A pipe.