A new method for nondestructively measuring pressure based on the Rayleigh wave

The pressure vessel is a kind of special equipments in the modern industry. It is important to measure the pressure in the vessel because of its working conditions. It has been proved that the change of ultrasonic velocity can be used to detect the stress information of the material. In this paper a new method based on the Rayleigh wave for nondestructively measuring the pressure is presented. The relationship between the velocity changes and the pressure is established for the low and middle pressure vessel. Considering velocity can not be measured directly, the relationship between the transit time difference and the pressure is deduced with the strain modified. The experimental data using wedge probes show that the model can predict the relationship between the transit time difference and the pressure accurately, and the method to measure pressure using Rayleigh wave is feasible.