Plane wave source with minimal harmonic distortion for investigating nonlinear acoustic properties

The objective of this investigation is to introduce and validate a practical ultrasound source to be used in the investigation of the nonlinear material properties of liquids and soft tissues studied in vitro. Methods based on the progressive distortion of finite amplitude ultrasonic waves in the low megahertz frequency range are most easily implemented under the assumption of plane wave propagation. However, achieving an approximately planar ultrasonic field over substantial propagation distances can be challenging. Furthermore, undesired harmonic distortion of the ultrasonic field prior to insonification of the specified region of interest represents another serious limitation. This paper introduces an approach based on the use of the ultrasonic field emanating from a stainless-steel delay line. Both simulation and direct experimental measurement demonstrate that such a field exhibits relatively planar wave fronts to a good approximation (such that a 3-mm-diam receiver would be exposed to no more than 3 dB of loss across its face) and is free from the significant harmonic distortion that would occur in a conventional water path.     

The influence of progressive light diffraction in Debye-Sears phenomena

Two previous theories of Debye-Sears diffraction of light by plane ultrasonic waves are summarized. The theories assume that significant modulation of the light wave occurs in both phase and amplitude. In our own approach account is taken of both curvature of the light rays inside the ultrasonic beam and diffraction of the system alone at the exit plane, neglecting any diffraction effect in the liquid itself. In the Hargrove's method progressive diffraction in the medium is considered. Results from these theories are compared with experimental data obtained at a frequency of 5 MHz with ultrasonic waves having large amplitude and beamwidth (50 mm).     

Modelling harmonic generation measurements in solids

Harmonic generation measurements typically make use of the plane wave result when extracting values for the nonlinearity parameter, β, from experimental measurements. This approach, however, ignores the effects of diffraction, attenuation, and receiver integration which are common features in a typical experiment. Our aim is to determine the importance of these effects when making measurements of β over different sample dimensions, or using different input frequencies. We describe a three-dimensional numerical model designed to accurately predict the results of a typical experiment, based on a quasi-linear assumption. An experiment is designed to measure the axial variation of the fundamental and second harmonic amplitude components in an ultrasonic beam, and the results are compared with those predicted by the model. The absolute β values are then extracted from the experimental data using both the simulation and the standard plane wave result. A difference is observed between the values returned by the two methods, which varies with axial range and input frequency.     

带斜楔相控声束偏转聚焦延时特性研究

带斜楔的相控阵超声检测广泛应用于低碳钢薄壁工件焊缝的检测,研究带斜楔的相控阵超声偏转聚焦检测延时法则和对应的声场将使检测可靠性进一步提高。本文利用费马原理探究了相控阵超声探头辐射声波至楔块中,在楔块-工件平面界面发生模式转换入射到工件中的横波聚焦时各阵元延时的计算方法,数值求解指定焦点时各阵元的延时,并利用计算得到的延时进行声场仿真和实验测量,发现声波能很好的聚焦在目标点,仿真和实验结果吻合。     

A continuous-wave ultrasound system for displacement amplitude and phase measurement

A noninvasive, continuous-wave ultrasonic technique was developed to measure the displacement amplitude and phase of mechanical structures. The measurement system was based on a method developed by Rogers and Hastings ["Noninvasive vibration measurement system and method for measuring amplitude of vibration of tissue in an object being investigated," U.S. Patent No. 4,819,643 (1989)] and expanded to include phase measurement. A low-frequency sound source was used to generate harmonic vibrations in a target of interest. The target was simultaneously insonified by a low-power, continuous-wave ultrasonic source. Reflected ultrasound was phase modulated by the target motion and detected with a separate ultrasonic transducer. The target displacement amplitude was obtained directly from the received ultrasound frequency spectrum by comparing the carrier and sideband amplitudes. Phase information was obtained by demodulating the received signal using a double-balanced mixer and low-pass filter. A theoretical model for the ultrasonic receiver field is also presented. This model coupled existing models for focused piston radiators and for pulse-echo ultrasonic fields. Experimental measurements of the resulting receiver fields compared favorably with theoretical predictions.     

Three-dimensional optical measurement of instantaneous pressure

Local perturbations in material density induced in a material by a compressional wave give rise to local perturbations in refractive index. Accurate, high-resolution, three-dimensional, optical measurements of an instantaneous refractive index perturbation in a homogeneous, optically transparent medium may be obtained from measurements of scattered optical intensity alone. The method of generalized projections allows incorporation of optical intensity measurements into an iterative algorithm for computing the phase of the interrogating optical pulse as the solution of a fixed point equation. The complex optical field amplitude, computed in this manner, is unique up to a constant unit magnitude complex coefficient. The three-dimensional refractive index distribution may be computed via the Fourier slice reconstruction algorithm from the optical phase data under the assumption of weak optical scattering. The refractive index perturbation is related to local instantaneous pressure under a linear, small-displacement model for the mechanical wave. A numerical simulation of the measurement experiment, phase recovery, and reconstruction process for a plane piston ultrasound transducer with a semicircular aperture and center frequency of 1.5 MHz is described and corresponds very well with experiment. Experimental data obtained using an 810-nm laser source are used to reconstruct the three-dimensional pressure field from two elements of a 2.5-MHz linear array. Comparison with a measurement obtained via a 500-microm needle hydrophone shows excellent agreement.     

超声换能器辐射场应力定量测量方法研究

提出了一种基于动态光弹观测系统的超声换能器在透明固体中辐射场应力定量测量新方法。该方法关注到激光束穿过非均匀应力区时的双折射累积效应和Senarmont补偿法均匀应力假设与真实应力非均匀分布之间的差异,利用滤波反投影算法重建出应力场;根据应力与换能器激励电压的线性关系,用4种激励电压动态校准重建后的应力数据。实验定量测量了圆形晶片超声换能器在固体内部辐射的瞬态纵波场的应力分布,结果表明应力幅值与激励电压成正比,符合线性规律。     

Research on three-dimensional shape reconstruction of circular cylindrical flaw

In this article, three-dimensional Born inverse scattering method is modified to convenient form for a cylindrical specimen that includes three-dimensional defect. One aluminum cylinder with flaw model is prepared and ultrasonic measurements are carried out. The measurement area in the modified methods is restricted in the plane perpendicular to the axis of cylindrical specimen. That’s to say that the method is modified to convenient form to use measured waveforms in the x₁ − x₂ plane. The measured wave data are fed into the inversion method and cross-sectional images are obtained. Then, three-dimensional shape reconstruction of flaw model in aluminum specimen is performed by piling up the cross-sectional images. At the same time, we get the numerical results from all directions by finite element method.     

Effect of the outer scale on the angle of arrival variance for free-space-laser beam corrugated by non-Kolmogorov turbulence

It is well known that atmospheric turbulence causes significant variations of the arrival angle of laser beams used in free-space communications. Usually, angle-of-arrival fluctuations of an optical wave in the plane of the receiver aperture is calculated by Kolmogorov’s power spectral-density model. Unfortunately, recently increasing experimental evidence has shown that atmospheric turbulence statistics does not obey Kolmogorov’s power spectrum model in some parts of the troposphere and stratosphere. These experiments have prompted investigations of the optical-wave propagation through atmospheric turbulence described by nonclassical power spectra. In this paper, employing a new approach and considering a non-Kolmogorov power spectrum with a generalized power law instead of the constant standard power-law value 11/3 and a generalized amplitude factor instead of the constant value 0.033, we derive the variances of the angle-of-arrival fluctuations of the plane and spherical waves in a weak turbulence for the horizontal path. The concise closed-form expressions are obtained and used to analyze the influence of spectral power-law variations on the angle-of-arrival fluctuations. In addition, the outer scale effect is also analyzed.     

High-frequency plane waves in the ear canal: application of a simple asymptotic theory

An asymptotic theory describing the propagation of plane waves in a variable cross-section ear canal is combined with pressure measurements in order to determine the energy reflection coefficient at the eardrum and the standing wave patterns along the length of the canal. The relative phase of the reflected wave, and the cross-sectional area function of the ear canal, are also determined from the noninvasive pressure measurements. The theory is based on a high-frequency multiscale solution of the one-dimensional horn equation and is shown to agree well with the phase and amplitude of experimental measurements in human replica ear canals.     

Ultrasonic waves propagation in absorbing thin plates application to paper characterization

Guided wave theory is applied to a thin orthotropic and absorbing plate for low frequency propagation of ultrasonic waves. The aim of this paper is to give some physical interpretations of the non-destructive characterization of paper materials, which are cellulosic fibrous networks. It is shown that the propagation problem reduces to two normal modes of propagation in the plane of the plate. Each of them depends on four complex and independent stiffnesses that are combinations of elementary complex stiffnesses of the media. The imaginary part of these stiffnesses corresponds to a possible mechanism of energy dissipation during the wave propagation for this kind of material. The reverse problem, which gives four complex values, is then numerically solved using a small attenuation assumption. The specially designed experimental set-up has led to the first measurements of tracing paper damping factors. The phase velocity measurements of the plate waves agree with the results already found by several paper researchers. As a particular and new result, the shear wave velocities are found to present a quasi-isotropic repartition in the plane of the paper sheet. It was found that the absorbing phenomenon can occur for each propagation mode in such a material. The attenuation values are small, except for one of them that corresponds to a coupling term in the propagation model. The anisotropy of their repartition is also shown in the case of quasi-longitudinal waves.     

Elastic constants measurement of anisotropic Olivier wood plates using air-coupled transducers generated Lamb wave and ultrasonic bulk wave

A hybrid elastic wave method is applied to determine the anisotropic constants of Olive wood specimen considered as an orthotropic solid. The method is based on the measurements of the Lamb wave velocities as well as the bulk ultrasonic wave velocities. Electrostatic, air-coupled, ultrasonic transducers are used to generate and receive Lamb waves which are sensitive to material properties. The variation of phase velocity with frequency is measured for several modes propagating parallel and normal to the fiber direction along a thin Olivier wood plates. A numerical model based mainly on an optimization method is developed; it permits to recover seven out of nine elastic constants with an uncertainty of about 15%. The remaining two elastic constants are then obtained from bulk wave measurements. The experimental Lamb phase velocities are in good agreement with the calculated dispersion curves. The evaluation of Olive wood elastic properties has been performed in the low frequency range where the Lamb length wave is large in comparison with the heterogeneity extent. Within the interval errors, the obtained elastic tensor doesn’t reveal a large deviation from a uniaxial symmetry.     

Interaction-free measurements of the second type: Concepts and proposal for a feasible experiment

Wave aspects inherent in quantum physics lead to observable consequences, which are far removed from classical intuition. The possibility of interaction-free measurement is one consequence of quantum wave nature at the single particle level. To date, all experiments, which have studied interaction-free measurements, have dealt with modification of the amplitude of the wave function. In this paper, we discuss interaction-free measurements of a second type, where only the phase of the wave function is modified. We show that an example discussed by Penrose is in this class and clarify the physical reasons for loss of interference in such measurements. We discuss the experimental feasibility of interaction-free measurements of the second type, employing micromaser cavities and atom interferometers. One scheme leads to the possibility of interactionfree measurement of the finesse of the cavity by observing atoms that never interacted with the cavity. The loss of interference, in this case, is due to a random spinor phase and there is no Heisenberg momentum back-action. This is the first experimental proposal for interaction-free measurements of pure phase changes.     

Nonlinear propagation effects on broadband attenuation measurements and its implications for ultrasonic tissue characterization.

A study is presented in which the influence of the pressure amplitude of the incident pulse on the estimated frequency dependency of the attenuation coefficient is shown. First, the effect is demonstrated with a simple theoretical model for both transmission and reflection measurements. Simulations show that for both measurement techniques a high-amplitude incident pulse results in a biased estimate of the attenuation coefficient due to nonlinear interaction of the different frequency components of the incident pulse. It is shown that in transmission and reflection measurements the biases have opposite signs. The effect of bandwidth, central frequency, and phase of the incident pulse on this bias is investigated. Second, the effect is demonstrated both in vitro, using a broadband through-transmission substitution technique on a tissue mimicking gelatine phantom, and in vivo, using reflection measurements with standard clinical equipment. The experimental results agree well with the theoretical model. The relevance of this study for ultrasonic tissue characterization is shown.     

Detection of moving objects and flows in liquids by ultrasonic phase conjugation

The possibility for the application of the method of parametric phase conjugation of ultrasonic waves in measuring the velocity of moving objects and flows is investigated. Results of experimental measurements of the Doppler frequency shift are presented for a low-frequency wave (1 MHz) generated by phase-conjugate waves (10 MHz and 11 MHz) propagating in opposite directions in the presence of a moving scatterer. The super high sensitivity of the phase of the low-frequency wave to variations in the spatial position of the scatterer is used to measure the velocity of the object. The presence of flows in the region of propagation of phase-conjugate waves returned leads to an uncompensated Doppler shift of the phase of the phase-conjugate wave at the primary radiation source. The implementation of this feature of ultrasonic phase conjugation for the detection and measurement of the flow velocities in a liquid is demonstrated experimentally.     

Transmission incoherent ultrasonic imaging of planar objects

A method of obtaining an ultrasonic image of a planar object with spatial variable transparency is proposed on the basis of the results of measuring the amplitude of the ultrasonic wave during the transmission ultrasonic probing. The case is considered in which the wave diffraction strongly affects the amplitude of the field behind the object and the phase is not measured. Even in the absence of phase information, this method allows one to restore the transparency masks of the planar object. The proposed mathematical apparatus can be also used in radio wave probing. Numerical simulation and processing of the experimental data demonstrated the comparability of this method and the aperture synthesis method using the phase information.     

Experimental investigation of the travel-time variance of an acoustic wave propagating through the grid-generated turbulence

An experimental technique for the investigation of the behaviour of acoustic wave propagation through a turbulent medium is discussed. The present study utilizes the ultrasonic travel-time technique to diagnose a grid-generated turbulence. Travel-time variance is studied versus mean flow velocity, travel distance and outer turbulence scale. The effect of thermal fluctuations, which result in fluctuations of sound speed, is studied using a heated-grid experiment. Experimental data obtained using ultrasonic technique confirm numerical and theoretical predictions of nonlinear increase of the travel-time variance with propagation distance, which could be connected to the occurrence of caustics. The effect of turbulent intensity on the travel-time variance and appearance of caustics is studied. It is demonstrated experimentally that the higher turbulence intensity leads to the shorter distance, at which the first caustic occurs. The probability density for caustics appearance is analysed against the measured wave amplitude fluctuations. The analysis reveals that the region of high-amplitude fluctuations corresponds to the region where the probability of formation of random caustics differs from zero. Experimental results are in very good agreement with theoretical and numerical predictions.     

基于群速度失配的超声兰姆波二次谐波的时域测量方法

考虑到发射和接收换能器对超声兰姆波时域二次谐波信号所带来的不可避免的影响,提出一种基于基频与二倍频兰姆波群速度失配的超声兰姆波二次谐波的时域测量方法。当基频与二倍频超声兰姆波的相速度匹配而群速度失配时,在超声兰姆波传播过程中所发生的二次谐波信号,在时域上可与源于斜劈换能器的二次谐波信号相分离。采用仅源自于基频兰姆波的时域二次谐波的积分振幅,定量描述兰姆波二次谐波的发生效率。以铝板中传播的兰姆波为例,给出了时域二次谐波的具体测量过程。本文提出的测量方法放宽了超声兰姆波二次谐波的测量条件,且扣除了换能器对二次谐波信号所带来的影响,所测得的二次谐波信号完全来自于基频兰姆波时域信号的二次谐波发生效应。      

Analysis of laser-generated ultrasonic force source at specimen surface and display of bulk wave in transversely isotropic plate by numerical method

Taking into account the effects of thermal diffusion and optical penetration, as well as the finite width and duration of the laser source, the laser-generated ultrasonic force source at surface vicinity is presented. The full acoustic fields of laser-generated ultrasonic bulk wave are obtained and displayed in transversely isotropic plate. The features of laser-generated ultrasound bulk waves are analyzed. The features of laser-generated ultrasonic bulk wave are in good agreement with the theoretical results (the phase velocity surfaces), demonstrating the validity of this simulation. The numerical results indicate that the features of laser-generated ultrasound waveforms in anisotropic specimen, different from the case in isotropic materials, have a close relation with the propagating plane and propagation direction. This method can provide insight to the generation and propagation of laser-generated ultrasonic bulk wave in transversely isotropic material.     

Physical spherical phase compensation in reflection digital holographic microscopy

Reflection configured digital holographic microscopy (DHM) can perform accurate optical topography measurements of reflecting objects, such as MEMs, MOEMs, and semiconductor wafer. It can provide non-destructive quantitative measurements of surface roughness and geometric pattern characterization with nanometric axial resolution in real-time. However, the measurement results may be affected by an additional phase curvature introduced by the microscope objective (MO) used in DHM. It needs to be removed either by numerical compensation or by physical compensation.We present a method of physical spherical phase compensation for reflection DHM in the Michelson configuration. In the object arm, collimated light is used for illumination. Due to the use of the MO, the object wavefront may have a spherical phase curvature. In the reference arm, a lens and mirror combination is used to generate a spherical recording reference wave in order to physically compensate the spherical phase curvature of the object wavefront. By controlling the position of the mirror and the sample stage, the compensation process has been demonstrated. The relative positions of the test specimen and the reference mirror must be fixed for the physical spherical phase to be totally compensated. A numerical plane reference wave is preferred for the numerical reconstruction of the phase introduced by the test specimen. Experimental results on wafer pattern recognition are also given.