Reliable ultrasonic non-destructive testing and asset management of utility wood poles

评估木杆的状况是制订成功和安全的维修方案的关键步骤。电力公司认为木杆是一种价值高、故障风险高的资产。目前，木杆的状态评估主要是目测和锤击探空试验。这些检查测试是主观的；然而，侵入式测试既昂贵又具有侵入性。公用事业业主迫切需要一种可靠的技术来执行具有成本效益的木杆维护和修复方案。该项目旨在开发一种评估木杆状况的新方法。提出了一种稳健的实验和分析方法；它不仅基于最新的超声检测方法，而且基于最新的概率数据分析技术。采用超声法原位测量单个木杆的残余强度；而统计方法则用于评估整个木杆基础设施的可靠性。在超声波检测中，介质性质的变化是从实际记录的数千个信息中的一个信息点来评估的。因为超声波换能器的响应不是与介质的实际运动成正比的。最先进的纳米激光系统（最近购买，RTI资助，2011年）将用于测量木杆中的超声波换能器产生的实际输入激励和介质响应。根据实际的输入和输出响应，评估木杆的内部状态。拟议的项目将通过引入具有成本效益的维护和修复操作来降低加拿大发电行业的成本。将使用先进的信号处理技术对附着在校准带上的超声波换能器阵列产生的超声波数据集进行分析，从波形中提取主要特征；这些特征将被用来训练一组统计分类算法。根据统计分类，将显示木杆腐烂区域的图像，并对剩余强度进行评估。

An assessment of the condition of wood poles is a critical step in the development of successful and safe maintenance programmes. Electricity companies consider wood poles to be an asset with high value and high risk of failure. Presently, the condition assessment of wood poles is based on visual inspection and sounding tests using a hammer to detect hollow sections. These inspection tests are subjective; whereas, intrusive tests are expensive and intrusive. Utility owners urgently need a reliable technique to perform cost-effective maintenance and rehabilitation programmes of wood poles. This project is specifically aimed at developing a new methodology for the condition assessment of wood poles. A robust experimental and analytical methodology is proposed; which is based not only on the latest ultrasonic testing methods but also on the latest probabilistic data analysis techniques. Ultrasonic tests are used to measure the residual strength of individual wood poles in-situ; whereas statistical methods are used to assess the reliability of the wood-pole infrastructure as a whole. In ultrasonic testing, changes in medium properties are evaluated from a single point of information out of thousands that are actually recorded. Because the response of ultrasonic transducers is not directly proportional to the actual motion of the medium. A state-of-the-art nano-laser system (recently purchased, RTI grant, 2011) will be used to measure the actual input excitations and medium responses generated by ultrasonic transducers in wood poles. From the actual input and output responses, the internal condition of a wood pole will be evaluated. The proposed project will reduce the costs of the Canadian power generation industry by introducing cost-effective maintenance and rehabilitation operations. The ultrasonic data set generated by an array of ultrasonic transducers attached to a calibrated belt will be analyzed using advanced signal processing techniques to extract the main features from the waveforms; these features will then be used to train a set of statistical classification algorithms. From the statistical classification, an image of the decayed areas in a wood pole will be displayed and the remaining strength evaluated.