Ultrasonic Nanostructured Thin Film Transducers for Flooded Member Detection

In this paper, we report a simple and accurate method to detect water in hollow pipes using a nanostructured thin film (NSTF). The NSTF was used as a piezoelectric transducer to mitigate health concerns generated by the current common flooded member detection technique, gamma radiography, and alleviate problems associated with using complex ceramic piezoelectric transducer arrays in flooded member detection. During testing of the NSTF's detection capabilities, discoveries were made which show the NSTF is a more viable candidate for flooded member detection than commercially available ultrasonic transducers due to the unique characteristics of the detected waveforms. Using the NSTF transducer for flooded member detection confers the accuracy and straightforward interpretation of results of radiological detection while avoiding detrimental exposure to the operator without the need of an ultrasonic multi-transducer detection system.