A New Hydrogen Assisted Crack Detector Using Ultrasonic Guided Wave Leave-in-Place Sensors

High strength steel alloys are widely used for military and industry structures like ship frame, gun barrel and pipelines. One significant limitation of the use of high strength steel alloy components is hydrogen embrittlement cracking. Hydrogen, in the atomic form, can enter the materials from many sources (1) steel making, (2) welding, (3) corrosion and (4) cathodic protection. It can produce a range of deterioration resulting in reduced ductility to brittle fracture. The deterioration is even worse under sustained tensile load. In this proposal, Intelligent Automation Inc. (IAI) proposes a new approach to characterize and predict the behavior of Hydrogen Assisted Cracking (HAC) in high strength steel alloys. The technique is composed of very small, low cost guided wave leave-in-place health monitoring sensors known as piezo-disks, innovative Correlation Analysis Technique (CAT) for fast crack sizing and localization, and a miniaturized single board computer (SBC) with data acquisition and processing capabilities and a digital LED for displaying final results. A wireless module could also be added for remote monitoring. It is envisioned the total cost of this system will be less than $1500.