Excitation of Mechanical Resonances in the Stationary Ring of a Mechanical Seal by a Continuously Operated Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Acoustic/ultrasonic testing is now a common method in the field of nondestructive testing for detecting material defects or monitoring ongoing mechanical changes in a structure during operation. In many applications, piezoelectric transducers are used to generate mechanical waves inside the specimen. Their actual operating frequency is highly dependent on the dimensions of the transducer. Larger dimensions of the piezoelectric transducer allow for a lower operating frequency. However, these dimensions limit the use of piezoelectric transducers in certain applications where the size of the transducer is restricted due to limited installation space and when low-frequency excitation is required. One application that places these requirements on the transducer is the monitoring of mechanical seals. Here, the transducer must be mounted on the stationary ring of the seal. In this paper, a continuously operated electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) is presented as an alternative to piezoelectric transducers as a transmitter. The advantage of a EMAT is that it meets the requirements of limited sensor size (sensor area < 10 × 6 mm) and can excite mechanical waves with frequencies below 10 kHz. A structural analysis of the stationary ring shows that the first two mechanical resonances occur around 4 and 5.5 kHz. An experimental study meterologically demonstrates the ability of the EMAT to excite these first two mechanical resonances of the ring. A comparative simulation agrees well with the measurement.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1015
JournalSensors
Volume23
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 16 Jan 2023

Keywords

  • bulk-wave EMAT
  • electromagnetic acoustic transducer
  • EMAT design
  • EMAT simulation
  • mechanical seals
  • structural analysis
  • vibration measurement

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Analytical Chemistry
  • Information Systems
  • Instrumentation
  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering
  • Biochemistry

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