Calibrating Ultrasonic Images for the NDE of Structural Materials

1994 ◽  
Vol 116 (3) ◽  
pp. 640-646 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. S. Gilmore ◽  
A. M. Glaeser ◽  
J. C. Wade
Keyword(s):  
Imaging System ◽  
Ultrasonic Transducer ◽  
Ultrasonic Imaging ◽  
Beam Width ◽  
Practical Method ◽  
Image Resolution ◽  
Detection Sensitivity ◽  
Manufacturing Companies ◽  
Turbine Engine ◽  
The Individual

Ultrasonic imaging is taking a larger and larger role in the NDE of turbine engine materials and in support of fracture mechanics calculations. It is also playing an increasing role in quality and process control. For most fracture toughness calculations, it is necessary to establish the accuracy with which a flaw’s size and shape are imaged, whether single or multiple flaws are involved, and the spacing of multiple flaws. Because of these requirements, resolution, as well as detection sensitivity, has become an issue. There are a number of resolution targets that can provide this type of calibration information for an ultrasonic imaging system. A fused quartz USAF 1951 target, similar to the patterns used in this work, was first used by Gilmore (1986), but Gilmore’s pattern was superficial and subsurface evaluations were limited to focusing on the pattern from the opposite side of the blank and monitoring the reflection from what is now the target backwall. Work by Paton (1977) did produce buried targets in titanium samples, but there was no practical method to produce buried targets in high-temperature ceramics until the techniques developed by Rodel and Glaeser (1987) were used to produce the targets described in this paper. Optically transparent resolution targets make it feasible to verify visually that the resolution target has been correctly fabricated. An image of the target with a candidate ultrasonic transducer then permits quantitative image resolution estimates to be made even when the interrogating acoustic beam contains significant refractive aberration. This is important because useful subsurface images can be acquired with the use of acoustic beams that are aberrant to the point that diffraction-limited beam-width calculations are meaningless. This work also demonstrates how the interdisciplinary skills of manufacturing companies can be combined with those of universities to produce results that any one of the individual members of the team could not have produced alone, without significant increases in labor, time, and cost.

scholarly journals Calibrating Ultrasonic Images for the NDE of Structural Materials

1993 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert S. Gilmore ◽  
Andreas M. Glaeser ◽  
Janet C. Wade
Keyword(s):  
Imaging System ◽  
Ultrasonic Transducer ◽  
Ultrasonic Imaging ◽  
Practical Method ◽  
Image Resolution ◽  
Detection Sensitivity ◽  
Manufacturing Companies ◽  
Turbine Engine ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Ultrasonic Images

Ultrasonic imaging is taking a larger and larger role in the NDE of turbine engine materials and in support of fracture mechanics calculations. It is also playing an increasing role in quality and process control. For most fracture toughness calculations, it is necessary to establish the accuracy with which a flaw’s size and shape are imaged, whether single or multiple flaws are involved, and the spacing of multiple flaws. Because of these requirements, resolution has become an issue as well as detection sensitivity. There are a number of resolution targets that can provide this type of calibration information for an ultrasonic imaging system. A fused quartz USAF 1951 target, similar to the patterns used in this work, was first used by Gilmore (1986), but Gilmore’s pattern was superficial and subsurface evaluations were limited to focusing on the pattern from the opposite side of the blank and monitoring the reflection from what is now the target backwall. Work by Peyton (1977) did produce buried targets in titanium samples, but there was no practical method to produce buried targets in high-temperature ceramics until the techniques developed by Rodel and Glaeser (1987) were used to produce the targets described in this paper. Optically transparent resolution targets make it feasible to visually verify that the resolution target has been correctly fabricated. An image of the target with a candidate ultrasonic transducer then permits quantitative image resolution estimates to be made even when the interrogating acoustic beam contains significant refractive aberration. This is important because useful subsurface images can be acquired with the use of acoustic beams that are aberrated to the point that diffraction-limited beamwidth calculations are meaningless. This work also demonstrates how the interdisciplinary skills of manufacturing companies can be combined with those of universities to produce results that any one of the individual members of the team could not have produced alone, without significant increases in labor, time, and cost.

Fundamental Study on Development of Air-Coupled Ultrasonic Imaging Measurement for Fuel Debris Inspection

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hironobu Kiuchi ◽  
Shun Kimura ◽  
Ari Hamdani ◽  
Hideharu Takahashi ◽  
Hiroshige Kikura ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Focused Ultrasound ◽  
Imaging System ◽  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
Ultrasonic Imaging ◽  
Sound Field ◽  
Beam Width ◽  
Imaging Method ◽  
Fundamental Study ◽  
Control Rod

Retrieval of fuel debris is one of the most urgent issues regarding the decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). A retrieval of fuel debris requires a measurement system which can be applied in the severe environment to investigate inside the Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) and the Control Rod Drive (CRD) housing. In this study, an air-coupled ultrasonic measurement is proposed because of the feasibility of its application in the severe environment such as the high-radiation atmosphere. However, compared with using it in water or solids, there are some difficulties with applying the air-coupled ultrasonic technique. Therefore, we employed a point-focused transducer which can converge ultrasonic energy in a small area. As a fundamental study, this paper focuses on the experimental assessment of the potential feasibility and property of the developed air-coupled ultrasonic imaging. Firstly, to obtain the property and characteristics of the point-focused transducer, the sound field of the transducer was measured. The sound field showed the convergence rate, acoustic intensity and the beam width of the transducer. Secondly, in order to improve Signal to Noise ratio (SN ratio), the ultrasonic imaging method using a frequency correlation was designed taking the feeble ultrasonic echoes from complex shape object into consideration. Finally, the shape of a test specimen, which imitates a fuel debris, was measured with the developed imaging system. The ultrasonic image of the specimen showed a good agreement with a photo. In conclusion, the imaging using air-coupled point-focused ultrasound was developed to successfully visualize a mock fuel debris from a relatively short distance of 40 mm – 100 mm.

Ultrasonic Block Compressed Sensing Imaging Reconstruction Algorithm Based on Wavelet Sparse Representation

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 262-272
Author(s):  
Guangzhi Dai ◽  
Zhiyong He ◽  
Hongwei Sun
Keyword(s):  
Compressed Sensing ◽  
Sparse Representation ◽  
Linear Array ◽  
Imaging System ◽  
Ultrasonic Imaging ◽  
Large Data ◽  
Reconstruction Algorithm ◽  
Array Transducer ◽  
Total Data ◽  
Block Compressed Sensing

Background: This study is carried out targeting the problem of slow response time and performance degradation of imaging system caused by large data of medical ultrasonic imaging. In view of the advantages of CS, it is applied to medical ultrasonic imaging to solve the above problems. Objective: Under the condition of satisfying the speed of ultrasound imaging, the quality of imaging can be further improved to provide the basis for accurate medical diagnosis. Methods: According to CS theory and the characteristics of the array ultrasonic imaging system, block compressed sensing ultrasonic imaging algorithm is proposed based on wavelet sparse representation. Results: Three kinds of observation matrices have been designed on the basis of the proposed algorithm, which can be selected to reduce the number of the linear array channels and the complexity of the ultrasonic imaging system to some extent. Conclusion: The corresponding simulation program is designed, and the result shows that this algorithm can greatly reduce the total data amount required by imaging and the number of data channels required for linear array transducer to receive data. The imaging effect has been greatly improved compared with that of the spatial frequency domain sparse algorithm.

scholarly journals Crown Structure Explains the Discrepancy in Leaf Phenology Metrics Derived from Ground- and UAV-Based Observations in a Japanese Cool Temperate Deciduous Forest

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 425
Author(s):  
Noviana Budianti ◽  
Hiromi Mizunaga ◽  
Atsuhiro Iio
Keyword(s):  
Deciduous Forest ◽  
Leaf Expansion ◽  
Image Resolution ◽  
Leaf Phenology ◽  
Visual Interpretation ◽  
Temperate Deciduous Forest ◽  
Individual Tree ◽  
Crown Structure ◽  
Uav Images ◽  
The Individual

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) provide a new platform for monitoring crown-level leaf phenology due to the ability to cover a vast area while offering branch-level image resolution. However, below-crown vegetation, e.g., understory vegetation, subcanopy trees, and the branches of neighboring trees, along with the multi-layered structure of the target crown may significantly reduce the accuracy of UAV-based estimates of crown leaf phenology. To test this hypothesis, we compared UAV-derived crown leaf phenology results against those based on ground observations at the individual tree scale for 19 deciduous broad-leaved species (55 individuals in total) characterized by different crown structures. The mean crown-level green chromatic coordinate derived from UAV images poorly explained inter- and intra-species variations in spring leaf phenology, most probably due to the consistently early leaf emergence in the below-crown vegetation. The start dates for leaf expansion and end dates for leaf falling could be estimated with an accuracy of <1-week when the influence of below-crown vegetation was removed from the UAV images through visual interpretation. However, a large discrepancy between the phenological metrics derived from UAV images and ground observations was still found for the end date of leaf expansion (EOE) and start date of leaf falling (SOF). Bayesian modeling revealed that the discrepancy for EOE increased as crown length and volume increased. The crown structure was not found to contribute to the discrepancy in SOF value. Our study provides evidence that crown structure is a pivotal factor to consider when using UAV photography to reliably estimate crown leaf phenology at the individual tree-scale.

scholarly journals Backscatter-difference Measurements of Cancellous Bone Using an Ultrasonic Imaging System

2015 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 285-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brent K. Hoffmeister ◽  
Morgan R. Smathers ◽  
Catherine J. Miller ◽  
Joseph A. McPherson ◽  
Cameron R. Thurston ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cancellous Bone ◽  
Imaging System ◽  
Ultrasonic Imaging
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