Monitoring pipe wall integrity using fiber Bragg grating-based sensing of low-frequency guided ultrasonic waves.

Recent literature shows that low-frequency ultrasonic guided waves experience mode confinement and loss of axi-symmetry in pipes with axially uniform features such as eccentricity. Considering extended wall loss as a case of uniform eccentricity, this paper proposes to monitor pipe integrity by measuring changes to the modal structure of low-frequency axisymmetric L(0,2) longitudinal guided waves. Fiber Bragg gratings are shown to be effective in detecting changes to L(0,2) modal characteristics, providing a novel route to health monitoring of pipe assets.