Predicting the sound reduction index of finite size specimen by a simplified spatial windowing technique

The transfer matrix technique is an efficient tool for calculating sound transmission through multilayered structures. However, due to the assumption of infinite size layers important discrepancies may be found between predicted and experimental data. The spatial windowing technique introduced by Villot et al. [Predicting the acoustical radiation of finite size multi-layered structures by applying windowing on infinite structures, Journal of Sound and Vibration 245 (2001) 433-455] has shown to give data much closer to measurement results than other measures, such as limiting the maximum angle of incidence when integrating to obtain the sound reduction index for diffuse incidence. Using a two-dimensional spatial window, also including the azimuth angle implies, however, that two double numerical integrations must be performed. As predicted results are compared with laboratory data, where the aspect ratio of the test object is required to be less than 1:2, a simplified procedure may be applied involving two single integrals only. It is shown that the accuracy in the end result may in practice be maintained by this simplified procedure.     

Air-coupled ultrasonic investigation of multi-layered composite materials

Air-coupled ultrasonics is fine alternative for the immersion testing technique. Usually a through transmission and a pitch-catch arrangement of ultrasonic transducers are used. The pitch-catch arrangement is very attractive for non-destructive testing and evaluation of materials, because it allows one-side access to the object. However, this technique has several disadvantages. It is sensitive to specularly reflected and edge waves. A spatial resolution depends on a distance between the transducers. A new method for detection and visualisation of inhomogeneities in composite materials using one-side access air-coupled ultrasonic measurement technique is described. Numerical predictions of Lamb wave interaction with a defect in a composite material are carried out and the interaction mechanism is explained. Experimental measurements are carried out with different arrangements of the transducers. The proposed method enables detect delamination and impact type defects in honeycomb materials.     

Historical note on spatial hole burning and twisted-mode laser resonators

Optical information depends normally on one or two dimensions. A parallel transmission through a zero-dimentional fiber therefore needs a suitable coding. For an achromatric grey level object this can be achieved by the use of wavelength multiplexing. The information of each position in the original object is carried by a different wavelength. Simple dispersive elements perform the encoding and decoding process. Application examples are shown for the transmission of bar codes and paper tape data.     

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.     

A homogenised vibratory model for predicting the acoustic properties of hollow brick walls

The prediction and the physical understanding of sound transmission through masonry walls made of hollow bricks remain an open question. To solve this problem a semi-analytical approach is proposed. The inhomogeneous structures of the brick wall are homogenised and a simplified analytical model is established to calculate the transmission loss of an equivalent finite and multilayered anisotropic plate. An efficient numerical homogenisation technique is derived to define the equivalent anisotropic brick. This process only needs the knowledge of the elastic tensor of the brick material that has been determined using ultrasonic measurements. The features of the simplified brick wall have been then investigated through Lamb waves dispersion curves. Finally, the model has been used to explain the transmission loss curve of a wall and a good agreement between predictions and test data is obtained.     

Edge enhancement of phase objects through complex media by using transmission-matrix-based spiral phase contrast imaging

The wavefront shaping based technique has been introduced to detect the edges of amplitude objects through complex media, but the extraction of the boundary information of invisible phase objects through complex media has not been demonstrated yet. Here, we present a phase contrast imaging technique to overcome the scattering, aiming to achieve the edge detection of the phase object through the complex media. An operator based on the experimentally measured transmission matrix is obtained by numerically adding a spiral phase in the Fourier domain. With the inverse of the filtered transmission matrix, we can directly reconstruct the edge enhanced images for both amplitude object and phase object beyond scattering. Experimentally, both digital and real objects are imaged, and the results verify that isotropic edge detection can be achieved with our technique. Our work could benefit the detection of invisible phase objects through complex media.     

超声散斑相移法测量技术

超声散斑相移法能满足工程建设中对水下物内层界面关键点位移进行测量的特殊要求。测量时,引入数字参考信号与物面测点上的散斑信号进行数字干涉,获得叠加信号强度。界面位移前后,应用软件逐步改变参考信号相位,可逐步改变叠加信号强度,根据这些信号强度值可计算出测点的位移量。应用此技术对水下试件内层表面的法线和切线方向上的位移进行了实测,测量结果与理论值有较好的吻合;研究表明打磨后的粗糙外层界面不影响应用相移法进行测量。在应用相移法测量时,不需声像转换,不需全场扫描,测量精度不受散斑尺寸限制。      

Digital ultrasonic speckle phase-shifting method

The digital ultrasonic speckle phase-shifting method (USPM), which is introduced in this paper, can be applied to the measurement of small displacement that is smaller than speckle size at the test point compared to traditional ultrasonic speckle correlation method (USCM). Using USPM, a digital ultrasonic reference signal is introduced to interfere with the ultrasonic speckle signal, which is picked up at the test point on an object surface and is referred to as the object signal. As the phase of the reference signal is shifted several times using the software and then they superimpose with the object signal respectively, the phase of the object signal can be calculated according to the intensities of the superimposed signals. If the object surface moves a small distance, the phase variation of the object speckle can be detected by the same process. As a result, the displacement of the object surface can be measured. Based on the feature of ultrasonic speckles, inner surface displacement of an object can be measured using this proposed method. In this case, the effect of outer surface roughness to the measurement accuracy of USPM is examined experimentally. The experimental results show that the measurement is successful when the displacement is smaller than half of the speckle size at the test point and the roughness parameter R_a of the outer surface of the specimen is less than about 5.47 μm.     

超声在固体火箭发动机无损检测中的应用

在固体火箭发动机的研制中，无损检测技术非常重要。本文介绍了一些主要的超声检测方法及其应用。脉冲多次反射法用于检测固体火箭发动机壳体与衬层之间的粘结质量。特性参数和扫频超声法以多层介质理论为基础，用于检测固体火箭发动机的深层粘结质量。     

The use of broadband acoustic transducers and pulse-compression techniques for air-coupled ultrasonic imaging

A pulse-compression technique has been applied to air-coupled testing of solid materials. Capacitance transducers were used to generate wide bandwidth swept-frequency (chirp) signals in air, which were then used to measure and image solid samples in through transmission. The results demonstrate that such signal processing techniques lead to an improvement in the signal to noise ratio and timing accuracy for air-coupled testing. Measurements of thickness and spectroscopic experiments are presented. Images of defects in a wide range of materials, including metals and carbon-fibre composites have also been obtained. This combination of capacitive transducers with pulse-compression techniques is shown to be a powerful tool for non-contact air-coupled ultrasonic measurements.     

Determination of object resonances by vibro-acoustography and their associated modes

Vibro-acoustography technique known by its noncontact excitation was used to detect resonance frequencies of objects in water. Two intersecting ultrasound beams generated by a 40 mm-diameter annular array transducer, focused at 35 mm and driven at f1=2.2 MHz and f2=2.22 MHz respectively, were targeted inside the object under test to produce a radiation force beating at the difference frequency f2-f1. This low frequency radiation force was used to excite the resonance vibration modes of the object by sweeping the frequency f2 between 2.22 and 2.275 MHz. The amplitude of the acoustic emission produced by the vibrations of the object was detected by a low frequency hydrophone (BW=60 kHz). By this approach, it was possible to detect resonance frequencies through amplitude variations of the measured acoustic emission. Experiments were conducted in a water tank for objects of different shapes and sizes. With a chalk sphere (15 mm-diameter) two resonance frequencies were detected at 45.75 and 68.75 kHz, and with a cylinder (10.38 mm-diameter and 32.20 mm-length) four principal resonance frequencies were identified in the 60 kHz-bandwidth of the hydrophone. It was shown with finite element calculations performed with Ansys, in which both solid and fluid parts were modelled, that the measured resonance frequencies corresponded to compressional or dilatation vibration modes of the object. It was verified that shear waves generated by torsional vibration modes were not propagated in water, as it is well known. The use of this technique to characterize heterogeneities in different media seems to be relatively more advantageous to other ultrasonic methods.     

Three-dimensional reconstruction of biological objects' internal structure heterogeneity from the set of ultrasonic tomograms

The paper presents the method of the three-dimensional reconstruction of biological objects' internal structure heterogeneity based on the ultrasonic examination of a woman's breast biopsy phantom. The phantom is made of quasi-homogeneous dense gel in which drops of lesions, characterized by fixed sizes and two different acoustic impedances, were dipped at random. For the purpose of this research a special measurement setup was elaborated, enabling a non-invasive in vitro imaging of biological objects' internal structure in cross-sections for fixed levels, by means of ultrasound transmission tomography (UTT) using the parallel-ray projection geometry of scanning. The two-dimensional images of the local values of ultrasonic wave's propagation velocity in the phantom's internal structure (ultrasonic tomograms) were reconstructed for fixed levels (by using the convolution and back-projection algorithm) from the measurements of average values of ultrasonic signals' runtime propagated from many directions around the object dipped in water. Analyzing the values of particular pixels and using an appropriate image processing technique, in effect the three-dimensional image of heterogeneity boundaries in the examined phantom's internal structure was computer-reconstructed. The obtained results are compatible with the specification provided by the phantom's producer in terms of sizes and acoustic parameters of lesions, which can simulate pathological changes and of the gel imitating the healthy tissue. It means that the method presented, after an appropriate modification and development of the measurement setup with an aim to accelerate the object scanning process and thus provide an opportunity for non-invasive in vivo examinations, could be applied for detecting and diagnosing tumors in women's breasts.     

电子显微镜散斑照相技术

提出了一种新颖的人工亚微米/纳米散斑制作技术.采用超声波分散亚微米/纳米颗粒,然后利用范德华力、静电力和毛细力将其吸附在试件表面.在特定分辨率的扫描电镜下,物体表面的亚微米/纳米颗粒可以看作是亚微米/纳米散斑.此外,发展了一种测量面内亚微米/纳米级变形的电子显微镜散斑照相技术.详细介绍了人工制作亚微米/纳米散斑和电子显微镜散斑照相技术,实验验证了技术的可行性     

Ultrasonic airborne insertion loss measurements at normal incidence (L)

Transmission loss and insertion loss measurements of building materials at audible frequencies are commonly made using plane wave tubes or as a panel between reverberant rooms. These measurements provide information for noise isolation control in architectural acoustics and in product development. Airborne ultrasonic sound transmission through common building materials has not been fully explored. Technologies and products that utilize ultrasonic frequencies are becoming increasingly more common, hence the need to conduct such measurements. This letter presents preliminary measurements of the ultrasonic insertion loss levels for common building materials over a frequency range of 28-90 kHz using continuous-wave excitation.     

Measurement of ultrasonic scattering attenuation in austenitic stainless steel welds: Realistic input data for NDT numerical modeling

Multipass welds made of 316L stainless steel are specific welds of the primary circuit of pressurized water reactors in nuclear power plants. Because of their strong heterogeneous and anisotropic nature due to grain growth during solidification, ultrasonic waves may be greatly deviated, split and attenuated. Thus, ultrasonic assessment of the structural integrity of such welds is quite complicated. Numerical codes exist that simulate ultrasonic propagation through such structures, but they require precise and realistic input data, as attenuation coefficients. This paper presents rigorous measurements of attenuation in austenitic weld as a function of grain orientation. In fact attenuation is here mainly caused by grain scattering. Measurements are based on the decomposition of experimental beams into plane-wave angular spectra and on the modeling of the ultrasonic propagation through the material. For this, the transmission coefficients are calculated for any incident plane wave on an anisotropic plate. Two different hypotheses on the welded material are tested: first it is considered as monoclinic, and then as triclinic. Results are analyzed, and validated through comparison to theoretical predictions of related literature. They underline the great importance of well-describing the anisotropic structure of austenitic welds for UT modeling issues.     

A study of space charge measurement

At present, there is no appropriate measurement techniques for space charge. In this paper, a U-shaped cavity device is developed as the space charge measurement device, which can be applied to transmission lines. Its design principle and calculation techniques of design parameter are also introduced. To test the space charge measurement accuracy of the U-shaped cavity device, a space charge generator is developed specifically for this experiment. The test results are excellent and show that the U-shaped cavity device can meet the design requirements. This technique is suitable for space charge measurement under transmission line normally charged work condition.     

Deformation, displacement and vibration investigations in manufacturing applications using a new hologram interferometry technique

The use of sandwich hologram interferometry makes it possible to investigate objects of interest to an engineer that is was not possible to investigate before. The paper presents the sandwich technique as well as some different applications of the technique. Static deformation of a milling machine and a dynamic study on a vibrating hand-drill are included. Another application is a study of a test object one metre in length, where the object was removed from the holographic set-up between exposures and holes were drilled in one wall of the object. The deformation around the drilled holes could be studied, after that a second recording of the object repositioned in the holographic set-up was performed. Finally it is shown how an in-plane rigid body motion of 1 mm could be compensated for, and a tilt of 1.5 × 10^-3 degrees of a special test object evaluated in spite of the large translation motion.     

基于ARM的嵌入式超声传播时间测量装置

应用超声波检测技术进行检测时,通常需对超声波在介质中的传播时间进行精准的测量,为精准测量超声波的传播时间,设计了一套基于ARM的嵌入式超声传播时间测量装置。该装置电路运行稳定,成本低廉,采用多次测量结果取算数平均值的方法以减小随机干扰,采用参比方法放置接收探头以消减电路中电子器件的延时。通过对实验结果进行分析,得出该装置可精准测量超声波在实验试块中的传播时间且满足设计要求,分辨率可达一纳秒。     

Thermographic measurement of the effect of humidity in mortar porosity

The objective of this analysis is to examine the influence of the moisture in the porosity measurement by means of thermal non-destructive test and ultrasound techniques. It is possible to determine the concrete durability by the calculation of its porosity. Porosity is determined in an indirect way, measuring mortar diffusivity by means of active thermography. Using ultrasound techniques, the porosity is related with the ultrasonic propagation of velocity. The diffusivity has been calculated using the W.J. Parker equation. In the ultrasound technique, using the pulse transmission method, ultrasonic propagation velocity was measured as a function of the water content. The conclusions express the correlation between both methods.     

Detection of bone disease with ultrasound--comparison with bone densitometry

A system for ultrasonic in-vivo examination of a heel bone (calcaneus) was developed. When operating in transmission mode, the system can measure broadband ultrasonic attenuation-BUA, speed of sound--SOS and thickness of bone. BUA and SOS are measured by comparing the pulses transmitted through the heel with the reference pulse transmitted through water. In our approach, we operate in the backscattered mode in addition to transmission. The backscattered ultrasonic technique for bone characterization is very promising because the magnitude of backscattered waves depends on the scattering cross-section of a trabecular structure that, to some extent, describes the microarchitecture of a calcaneus. Additionally, when the backscattered and transmitted signals are compared, some of the signal distortions caused by tissue and bone interfaces are reduced. A set of data representing signals transmitted through the heel and reflected inside a calcaneus for patients with osteoporosis was collected. Several signal-processing techniques were applied in order to smooth the backscattered signal and to calculate a trabecular structure cros-section (TSC) function. Results obtained by these approaches along with a spectral shift method and a standard BUA measurement are presented and compared to X-ray bone mineral density determination results.