Laser generation of narrowband lamb waves for in-situ inspection of additively manufactured metal components

Abstract

Recent developments in metal additive manufacturing (AM) has created a lot of interest in sectors including automotive, aerospace and biomedical engineering. It is imperative that the components manufactured additively be inspected for flaws, mechanical properties and dimensional accuracy. Several non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques such as X-ray computed tomography and conventional ultrasonic testing have been implemented to evaluate the quality of these components. Recently, research has been focused on techniques that can perform non-contact testing and carry out an online inspection layer by layer while the component is being fabricated. Laser based ultrasonic technique has been found to be a promising method owing to its non-contact nature and ability to operate in harsh environments. In our study, narrow band lamb waves were generated using a pulsed Nd-YAG laser system consisting of a spatial array illumination source. The generated wave modes were detected using a two-wave mixing based laser interferometer. The wavelength-matched method enabled generation of specific lamb wave modes for in-situ inspection of additively manufactured components.