[3A4] RCNDE CDT paper: Improvement in imaging repeatability using ultrasonic phased array in noisy materials
Yuan Xue, Paul D Wilcox and Anthony Croxford
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bristol, UK
This work evaluates a number of variables influencing the repeatability of non-destructive evaluation. The studies have been conducted in immersion using a 1D array on a copper sample with a Cartesian motion system. The approach is to capture and process the full matrix of all transmit–receive time domain signals from the array. Post-processing the data in this way enables finding the changing variables between inspections, such as positioning error, variation in sound speed, etc. TFM images can be reconstructed using the same data with compensation of those variables, which improves the repeatability performance by around 13 dB. The designed experiment enlarges a 2 mm diameter hole to 3 mm, and the change is invisible to traditional TFM images. By reconstructing the images before and after enlargement, the change can be easily observed.
