Shear horizontal (SH) ultrasound wave propagation around smooth corners

Shear horizontal (SH) ultrasound guided waves are being used in an increasing number of non-destructive testing (NDT) applications. One advantage SH waves have over some wave types, is their ability to propagate around curved surfaces with little energy loss; to understand the geometries around which they could propagate, the wave reflection must be quantified. A 0.83 mm thick aluminium sheet was placed in a bending machine, and a shallow bend was introduced. Periodically-poled magnet (PPM) electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs), for emission and reception of SH waves, were placed on the same side of the bend, so that reflected waves were received. Additional bending of the sheet demonstrated a clear relationship between bend angles and the reflected signal. Models suggest that the reflection is a linear superposition of the reflections from each bend segment, such that sharp turns lead to a larger peak-to-peak amplitude, in part due to increased phase coherence.