{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,27]],"date-time":"2026-05-27T15:21:02Z","timestamp":1779895262873,"version":"3.53.1"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"19","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,9,21]],"date-time":"2022-09-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1663718400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"grant project of the Science and Technology Research Program from the Educational Committee of Hubei Province","award":["Q20201309"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["Q20201309"]}]},{"name":"grant project of the Science and Technology Research Program from the Educational Committee of Hubei Province","award":["2019AAA011"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2019AAA011"]}]},{"name":"grant project of the Science and Technology Research Program from the Educational Committee of Hubei Province","award":["51978079"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["51978079"]}]},{"name":"grant project of the Science and Technology Research Program from the Educational Committee of Hubei Province","award":["K2021-18"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["K2021-18"]}]},{"name":"Major Technology Innovation of Hubei Province","award":["Q20201309"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["Q20201309"]}]},{"name":"Major Technology Innovation of Hubei Province","award":["2019AAA011"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2019AAA011"]}]},{"name":"Major Technology Innovation of Hubei Province","award":["51978079"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["51978079"]}]},{"name":"Major Technology Innovation of Hubei Province","award":["K2021-18"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["K2021-18"]}]},{"name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["Q20201309"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["Q20201309"]}]},{"name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["2019AAA011"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2019AAA011"]}]},{"name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["51978079"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["51978079"]}]},{"name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["K2021-18"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["K2021-18"]}]},{"name":"Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Exploration Technologies for Oil and Gas Resources (Yangtze University), Ministry of Education","award":["Q20201309"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["Q20201309"]}]},{"name":"Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Exploration Technologies for Oil and Gas Resources (Yangtze University), Ministry of Education","award":["2019AAA011"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2019AAA011"]}]},{"name":"Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Exploration Technologies for Oil and Gas Resources (Yangtze University), Ministry of Education","award":["51978079"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["51978079"]}]},{"name":"Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Exploration Technologies for Oil and Gas Resources (Yangtze University), Ministry of Education","award":["K2021-18"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["K2021-18"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Butt welding is extensively applied in long-distance oil and gas pipelines, and it is of great significance to conduct non-destructive ultrasonic testing of girth welds in order to avoid leakage and safety accidents during pipeline production and operation. In view of the limitations of large transducer size, single fixed beam angle, low detection resolution and high cost of conventional ultrasonic inspection technologies, a 16-channel piezoelectric micro ultrasonic transducer (PMUT) array probe was developed through theoretical analysis and structural optimization design. After the probe impedance characterization, the experimental results show that the theoretical model can effectively guide the design of the ultrasonic transducer array, offering the maximum operating frequency deviation of less than 5%. The ultrasonic echo performance tests indicate that the average \u22126 dB bandwidth of the PMUT array probe can be up to 77.9%. In addition, the fabricated PMUT array probe has been used to successfully detect five common internal defects in pipeline girth welds. Due to the multiple micro array elements, flexible handling of each element, large bandwidth and high resolution of defect detection, the designed PMUT array probe can provide a good application potential in structural health monitoring and medical ultrasound imaging fields.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s22197133","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,9,21]],"date-time":"2022-09-21T00:08:09Z","timestamp":1663718889000},"page":"7133","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["Development of a 16-Channel Broadband Piezoelectric Micro Ultrasonic Transducer Array Probe for Pipeline Butt-Welded Defect Detection"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"22","author":[{"given":"Bolun","family":"Li","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electronics and Information, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434023, China"},{"name":"National Demonstration Center for Experimental Electrical & Electronic Education, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434023, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5156-033X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Changhe","family":"Sun","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electronics and Information, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434023, China"},{"name":"National Demonstration Center for Experimental Electrical & Electronic Education, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434023, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shouchun","family":"Xin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electronics and Information, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434023, China"},{"name":"National Demonstration Center for Experimental Electrical & Electronic Education, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434023, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mingzhang","family":"Luo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electronics and Information, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434023, China"},{"name":"National Demonstration Center for Experimental Electrical & Electronic Education, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434023, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chuang","family":"Hei","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electronics and Information, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434023, China"},{"name":"National Demonstration Center for Experimental Electrical & Electronic Education, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434023, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Guofeng","family":"Du","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Urban Construction, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434023, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ankang","family":"Feng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electronics and Information, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434023, China"},{"name":"National Demonstration Center for Experimental Electrical & Electronic Education, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434023, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,9,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"1","article-title":"Development history and prospect of oil & gas storage and transportation industry in China","volume":"38","author":"Huang","year":"2019","journal-title":"Oil Gas Storage Transp."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"175","DOI":"10.1134\/S1061830916030049","article-title":"Defects detection of gas pipeline near the welds based on self quotient image and discrete cosine transform","volume":"52","author":"Kim","year":"2016","journal-title":"Russ. 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