Modeling and Measuring All the Elements of an Ultrasonic Nondestructive Evaluation System II: Model-Based Measurements

In Part I: Modeling Foundations [1], a comprehensive model of an ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation (NDE) flaw measurement system was developed. Here, it will be shown that this comprehensive model can be used to completely characterize commercial measurement systems where all the elements of the system can be either modeled explicitly or measured, using purely electrical measurements. When combined, these models and measurements are shown to be able to predict accurately the measured signals in an ultrasonic test.     

Modeling and Measuring All the Elements of an Ultrasonic Nondestructive Evaluation System II: Model-Based Measurements

Abstract

In Part I: Modeling Foundations [1], a comprehensive model of an ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation (NDE) flaw measurement system was developed. Here, it will be shown that this comprehensive model can be used to completely characterize commercial measurement systems where all the elements of the system can be either modeled explicitly or measured, using purely electrical measurements. When combined, these models and measurements are shown to be able to predict accurately the measured signals in an ultrasonic test.     

Modeling and Measuring All the Elements of an Ultrasonic Nondestructive Evaluation System I: Modeling Foundations

A comprehensive model of an ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation (NDE) flaw measurement system is developed that combines models for the electrical components (pulser/receiver, cabling), electromechanical components [transducer(s)], and the acoustic/elastic processes present in the materials being inspected, including the scattering of ultrasonic waves from a flaw. This model is called the electroacoustic measurement (EAM) model . Here, in Part I, the underlying modeling foundations of the EAM model are described in detail and the use of the EAM model is demonstrated in a transducer design study. This EAM model provides a new, powerful tool for analyzing virtually any element in the measurement process. In Part II it will be shown that this power can be extended to characterizing typical commercial measurement systems through the use of models and purely electrical measurements of the system components.     

Modeling and Measuring All the Elements of an Ultrasonic Nondestructive Evaluation System I: Modeling Foundations

A comprehensive model of an ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation (NDE) flaw measurement system is developed that combines models for the electrical components (pulser/receiver, cabling), electromechanical components [transducer(s)], and the acoustic/elastic processes present in the materials being inspected, including the scattering of ultrasonic waves from a flaw. This model is called the electroacoustic measurement (EAM) model . Here, in Part I, the underlying modeling foundations of the EAM model are described in detail and the use of the EAM model is demonstrated in a transducer design study. This EAM model provides a new, powerful tool for analyzing virtually any element in the measurement process. In Part II it will be shown that this power can be extended to characterizing typical commercial measurement systems through the use of models and purely electrical measurements of the system components.     

Modeling and Measuring All the Elements of an Ultrasonic Nondestructive Evaluation System I: Modeling Foundations

Abstract

A comprehensive model of an ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation (NDE) flaw measurement system is developed that combines models for the electrical components (pulser/receiver, cabling), electromechanical components [transducer(s)], and the acoustic/elastic processes present in the materials being inspected, including the scattering of ultrasonic waves from a flaw. This model is called the electroacoustic measurement (EAM) model. Here, in Part I, the underlying modeling foundations of the EAM model are described in detail and the use of the EAM model is demonstrated in a transducer design study. This EAM model provides a new, powerful tool for analyzing virtually any element in the measurement process. In Part II it will be shown that this power can be extended to characterizing typical commercial measurement systems through the use of models and purely electrical measurements of the system components.     

Ultrasonic Transducer Sensitivity and Model-Based Transducer Characterization

It is shown that the role that an ultrasonic piezoelectric transducer plays in both generating and receiving ultrasound in an ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation (NDE) measurement system can be completely described in terms of the transducer's electrical impedance and open-circuit, blocked force receiving sensitivity. Furthermore, it is shown that both of these quantities can be obtained experimentally via a model-based approach and purely electrical measurements. The measurement of sensitivity uses a method originally developed for lower-frequency acoustic transducers. However, it is shown that at the higher frequencies found in ultrasonic NDE applications electrical cabling effects play an important role and must be compensated for in determining the transducer sensitivity. Examples of experimental measurement results using these new approaches are given.     

Ultrasonic Transducer Sensitivity and Model-Based Transducer Characterization

It is shown that the role that an ultrasonic piezoelectric transducer plays in both generating and receiving ultrasound in an ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation (NDE) measurement system can be completely described in terms of the transducer's electrical impedance and open-circuit, blocked force receiving sensitivity. Furthermore, it is shown that both of these quantities can be obtained experimentally via a model-based approach and purely electrical measurements. The measurement of sensitivity uses a method originally developed for lower-frequency acoustic transducers. However, it is shown that at the higher frequencies found in ultrasonic NDE applications electrical cabling effects play an important role and must be compensated for in determining the transducer sensitivity. Examples of experimental measurement results using these new approaches are given.     

Ultrasonic Transducer Sensitivity and Model-Based Transducer Characterization

Abstract

It is shown that the role that an ultrasonic piezoelectric transducer plays in both generating and receiving ultrasound in an ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation (NDE) measurement system can be completely described in terms of the transducer's electrical impedance and open-circuit, blocked force receiving sensitivity. Furthermore, it is shown that both of these quantities can be obtained experimentally via a model-based approach and purely electrical measurements. The measurement of sensitivity uses a method originally developed for lower-frequency acoustic transducers. However, it is shown that at the higher frequencies found in ultrasonic NDE applications electrical cabling effects play an important role and must be compensated for in determining the transducer sensitivity. Examples of experimental measurement results using these new approaches are given.     

Design of Low Cost Broadband Ultrasonic Pulser–Receiver

Determination of ultrasonic propagation velocity in materials provides an insight into their intrinsic and extrinsic properties. The American National Standard, E-494–95 describes an exhaustive procedure of ultrasonic velocity measurement and various material parameters that are based on ultrasonic velocity. Ultrasonic pulser–receiver is a device, used to excite piezoelectric transducers. Further, a oscilloscope or data acquisition device is employed to display and analyze the receiver output. The quality of measured parameter mainly depends on the capabilities of the measurement device used at the receiver. Careful study of the displayed wave pattern enables the detection of deformities inside the metal blocks. In this article, a low cost pulser–receiver designed in the laboratory has been discussed. The design provided can be used by a person having considerable knowledge of electronics to build up a pulser–receiver. The designed device has been tested for its functionality to measure ultrasonic velocity and attenuation. The measured values have been compared with the literature values and are in close agreement with the measurements taken by an imported system.     

Model-Based Estimation of Thin Multi-Layered Media Using Ultrasonic Measurements

In ultrasonic measurement situations, when dealing with media of multi-layered structures consisting of 1 or more thin layers, analysis of the measured ultrasonic waveform can be difficult because of overlapping and reverberant echoes. Information from the individual layers is then difficult to extract because the individual echoes cannot be detected. In this study, we use a parametric layer model to analyze the multi-layered material in a system identification approach. The parameters of the model are connected to physical properties of the investigated material, e.g., the reflection coefficients, the time-of-flight, and the attenuation. The main advantage using this model is that the complexity of the model is connected to the number of layers rather than the number of observable echoes in the received ultrasonic waveform. A system of linear equations is presented, giving the opportunity to find the model for both pulse-echo and through-transmission measurements. A thorough effort is made on the parameter estimation and optimization algorithm. The model is validated with practical measurements on a 3-layered structure using both pulse-echo and through-transmission techniques. The 3-layered material consists of a thin embedded middle layer with the time-of-flight in that layer shorter than the emitted signal?s time support, giving rise to overlapping echoes. Finally the relation between the model parameters and physical properties of the material is established.     

Prediction of Side-Drilled Hole Signals Captured by a Dual Crystal Contact Probe

The dual crystal transducer plays an important role in many practical ultrasonic inspections due to its outstanding near surface resolution and signal-to-noise ratio. In order to get a deeper understanding on the characteristics of this kind inspection system, it is essential to develop an ultrasonic measurement model for dual crystal probes. To address such a need, by combining a multi-Gaussian beam model and a scattering model with the separation of variables method, we provide an efficient ultrasonic measurement model for the dual element transducer. This measurement model can be used to determine the system efficiency factor and predict the responses of a side-drilled hole. Furthermore, the comparisons of model predictions with experimental results are presented to certify the accuracy of this provided model.     

高温管道超声波测厚方法影响因素仿真研究

针对石化行业中在高温工作状态下的管道测厚问题,本文研究了超声波高温管道测厚方法中的一些影响因素,并实现了一套高温管道超声波测厚的仿真系统。实验中讨论了不同厚度、不同材料、不同噪声水平以及不同温度对超声波管道测厚结果的影响。此外,比较了不同测厚方法对管道厚度测量的影响。实验结果表明,该系统能够较好的模拟高温超声波测厚系统,能够实现高温管道厚度的测量。     

Characterization of micromachined ultrasonic transducers using light diffraction tomography

This paper demonstrates that light diffraction tomography can be used to measure the acoustic field of micromachined ultrasonic transducers (MUT) in cases in which standard methods like hydrophone and microphone measurements fail. Two types of MUTs have been characterized with the method, one air-coupled capacitive MUT (cMUT) and one waterloaded continuous wave (CW) miniature multilayer lead zirconate titanate (PZT) transducer. Light diffraction tomography is an ultrasound measurement method with some special characteristics. Based on the interaction of light and ultrasound, it combines light intensity measurements with tomography algorithms to produce a measurement system. The method offers nonperturbing pressure measurements with high spatial resolution. It has been shown that, under certain circumstances, light diffraction tomography can be used as an absolute pressure measurement method with accuracy in the order of 10% in water and 13% in air. The results show that air-coupled cMUTs in the frequency range of about 1 MHz as well as the extreme near field of a miniaturized CW 10 MHz water-loaded transducer were successfully characterized with light diffraction tomography.     

Flaw signature estimation in ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation using the Wiener filter with limited prior information

Flaw signals measured in ultrasonic testing include the effects of the measurements system and are corrupted by noise. The measurement system response is both bandlimited and frequency dependent within the bandwidth, resulting in measured signals which are blurred and distorted estimates of actual flaw signatures. The Wiener filter can be used to estimate the flaw's scattering amplitude by removing the effect of the measurement system in the presence of noise. A method is presented for implementing an optimal form of the Wiener filter that requires only estimates of the noise distribution parameters. The theoretical error for scattering amplitude estimation, assuming various levels of available prior information, is analyzed. Three estimation techniques, one a maximum-likelihood based method and the other two residual-sum-of-squares methods, are formulated and tested. The results demonstrate that any of the three approaches could be used to optimally implement the alternative form of the Wiener filter with limited prior information.     

Errors and uncertainties in the measurement of ultrasonic wave attenuation and phase velocity

This paper presents an analysis of the error generation mechanisms that affect the accuracy of measurements of ultrasonic wave attenuation coefficient and phase velocity as functions of frequency. In the first stage of the analysis we show that electronic system noise, expressed in the frequency domain, maps into errors in the attenuation and the phase velocity spectra in a highly nonlinear way; the condition for minimum error is when the total measured attenuation is around 1 Neper. The maximum measurable total attenuation has a practical limit of around 6 Nepers and the minimum measurable value is around 0.1 Neper. In the second part of the paper we consider electronic noise as the primary source of measurement error; errors in attenuation result from additive noise whereas errors in phase velocity result from both additive noise and system timing jitter. Quantization noise can be neglected if the amplitude of the additive noise is comparable with the quantization step, and coherent averaging is employed. Experimental results are presented which confirm the relationship between electronic noise and measurement errors. The analytical technique is applicable to the design of ultrasonic spectrometers, formal assessment of the accuracy of ultrasonic measurements, and the optimization of signal processing procedures to achieve a specified accuracy.     

基于声学法测量气体分子量的初步研究

超声流量计可以实现当地声速的直接测量,声速与气体分子量存在定量关系,而分子量大小取决于气体组分。因此,可利用超声流量计实时测量得到的声速实现对天然气组分的间接核查,这对完善天然气能源计量体系具有至关重要的作用。该文分析声学法测量气体分子量的理论基础;以超声流量计为主体搭建声学法测量气体分子量的实验装置;并以氮气为实验介质,对实验装置声速测量的不确定度进行初步分析。研究结果可为声学法测量气体分子量在天然气能量计量中的应用提供理论依据和数据支撑。     

The use of an ultrasonic measuring system to construct a working standard of air flow speed

Some features of the use of the ultrasonic method of measurement to construct a working standard of air flow speed are considered. It is shown that alternate probing of the flow in both directions is promising and it is thereby possible to reduce the random errors of measurements of its speed. The results of a measurement of air flow speed, obtained using an ultrasonic measuring system and a laser Doppler anemometer are compared. __________ Translated from Izmeritel’naya Tekhnika, No. 12, pp. 35–38, December, 2007.     

A New Multifunctional Sensor Using Piezoelectric Ceramic Transducers for Simultaneous Measurements of Propagation Time and Electrical Conductance

The aim of this paper is to develop a system for reconstructing an image of two parameters, e.g., temperature and body composition, in the same region of a living body. In this paper, a new multifunctional sensor for simultaneous measurements of the ultrasonic and electrical properties of an object is proposed. The proposed sensor, which uses a pair of piezoelectric ceramic transducers, measures not only the ultrasonic property of the object but also its electrical property by using the surface electrodes of each piezoelectric ceramic transducer. In the experiment, the propagation time and conductance of a simple cell model for the living body are simultaneously measured by the proposed sensor. The sodium chloride (NaCl) concentration, which is the composition that determines the conductivity of the model, and temperature are estimated from the measurements. It was found that the ultrasonic and electrical properties could simultaneously be measured. In addition, two parameters of the model could be estimated from these measured values. Therefore, it is suggested that the proposed sensor has the potential for application, although there are some problems that must be solved.     

A Linear Time-Invariant Filtering Approach for Ultrasonic Transducer Normalization

The increased use of automatic defect detection and characterization systems of the self-learning type has created a demand for means capable of normalizing signals from ultrasonic transducers. Measurements obtained using different measurement setups should be normalized with reference to a standard transducer. It is usually an unfeasible task to optimize characterization procedures for all combinations of measurement parameters that are usually available in a modern complex measurement system. For instance, a change of transducer or only a change in cable length may result in substantial differences in measured data. We propose a linear filtering approach for normalizing ultrasonic pulse-echo measurements as a preprocessing step before presenting the data to a characterization system. The approach requires two data sets: one for the reference transducer and one for the transducer to normalize. We formulate the normalization problem as a general linear approximation problem and derive an optimal linear transformation for an ideal situation with known transducer and noise characteristics. Due to the properties of the optimal linear transformation, a close approximation of this transformation can be implemented using a linear time-invariant filter. We verify by simulations that the filter approximation is valid, and we also examine some properties concerning the accuracy of the estimates obtained using the filter approximation. The filter is obtained using the output error method, one of the standard system identification methods. The proposed method is tested on real ultrasonic data obtained from carbon-fiber—reinforced epoxy composites. The results of experiments with real data, illustrating one of the possible applications, are used to point out some practical considerations that have to be taken into account when implementing the proposed method.