The wavelet response as a multiscale characterization of scattering processes at granular interfaces

We perform a multiscale analysis of the backscattering properties of a complex interface between water and a layer of randomly arranged glass beads with diameter D = 1 mm. An acoustical experiment is done to record the wavelet response of the interface in a large frequency range from λ/D = 0.3 to λ/D = 15. The wavelet response is a physical analog of the mathematical wavelet transform which possesses nice properties to detect and characterize abrupt changes in signals. The experimental wavelet response allows to identify five frequency domains corresponding to different backscattering properties of the complex interface. This puts quantitative limits to the validity domains of the models used to represent the interface and which are flat elastic, flat visco-elastic, rough random half-space with multiple scattering, and rough elastic from long to short wavelengths respectively. A physical explanation based on Mie scattering theory is proposed to explain the origin of the five frequency domains identified in the wavelet response.     

New automatic localization technique of acoustic emission signals in thin metal plates

In acoustic emission (AE) measurement, the information of the arrival time is very important for event location, event identification and source mechanism analysis. Manual picks are time-consuming and sometimes subjective, especially in the case of large volumes of digital data. Various techniques have been presented in the literature and are routinely used in practice such as amplitude threshold, analysis of the long-term average/short-term average (LTA/STA), high-order statistics or artificial neural networks.A new automatic determination technique of the first arrival times of AE signals is presented for thin metal plates. Based on Akaike’s information criterion, proposed algorithm of the first arrival detection uses a specific characteristic function, which is sensitive to change of frequency in contrast to others such as envelope of the signal. The approach is applied to data sets of three different tests. Reliable results show the potential of our approach.     

Optimal wavelet filter for suppression of coherent noise with an application to seismic data

Wavelet analysis is combined with the Karhunen-Loève (KL) transform into an innovative hybrid method for locally filtering coherent noise. In applying our method, the original time series is first decomposed with wavelet transform, the scales more contaminated with noise are reduced by an attenuation factor A_f, and the signal is reconstructed using the inverse wavelet transform. Then the KL transform is applied to the reconstructed signal and the behavior of the first energy modes is analyzed as a function of A_f. The point corresponding to a minimum in the first mode is identified with the maximum extraction of the coherent noise. Our methodology is applied with success to seismic data with the aim of locally extracting the relevant coherent noise, namely the ground roll noise. The procedure can be easily extended to other situations where an undesirable signal is associated with a specific set of energy modes.     

Inversion of Rayleigh waves using a genetic algorithm in the presence of a low-velocity layer

The shear-wave velocity profile can be obtained by the velocity of Rayleigh waves through the back-calculation based on dispersion curves. However, the dispersion curves obtained in practical application are always discontinuous and correspond to different mode branches due to mode jumping, especially in the presence of low-velocity layer. Mode misidentification may be encountered in inversion based on these jumped dispersion curves. Mode analysis demonstrates that the mode jumping is caused by a different surface displacement distribution with frequency for each mode. This indicates that the surface displacement distribution of the modes should be taken into account for the case of a low-velocity layer. Shear-wave velocity profiles are inversed based on the (possibly discontinuous) dispersion curves of fundamental and/or higher modes using a genetic algorithm (GA). In addition to the dispersion characteristics, the surface displacement distribution is also taken into account for the case of a low-velocity layer; as a result, mode misidentification is avoided. Published in Russian in Akusticheskiĭ Zhurnal, 2006, Vol. 52, No. 6, pp 811–824. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

An elevation coding method for auditory displays

This paper describes an alternative approach to elevation coding in an auditory display delivered through headphones. Objects in auditory display are presented as sound sources. Direction dependent cues for auditory display construction are most effectively presented by individualised head-related transfer functions (HRTFs), while generalised HRTFs give satisfactory results only in the azimuth. Since measurements of individualised HRTFs are impractical, we propose an alternative method for coding elevation. This method requires some time for the listener to adapt to it. The learning process can be shortened significantly if the coding is similar to natural human perception of sound elevation. To test human capability of distinguishing between different sounds, several sound sets were created and presented to test subjects. Five sound sets with the best resolution were then used to create auditory display of a graphical user interface (GUI). Test subjects were able to learn this display in relatively short time, which justifies the method and gives opportunity for further research.     

A hybrid compression method for head-related transfer functions

The paper proposes a hybrid compression method to resolve the storage problem of a large number of head-related transfer functions (HRTFs). First, each HRTF is approximated by a minimum-phase HRTF and an all pass filter whose group delay equals the interaural time delay (ITD). Second, principal component analysis is applied to the entire HRTF set to derive several basis functions, with a weight vector set defining the contribution of the basis functions to each HRTF. Third, the weight set is vector quantized with the designed codebook. At last, the ITD is curved surface fitted with a cosine series bivariate polynomial. As a result, the HRTF can be reconstructed from the basis functions, codebook indexes, and ITD polynomial coefficients. Simulation results reveal that the proposed method may reduce the data size greatly with similar reconstruction precision comparing with the principal component analysis method.     

A new method to determine the frequency response of enclosures using masked tones

Existing methods for equalization of enclosures are traditionally carried out in an empty room due to the annoying effect of the signals employed (pink noise, 1/3 octave tones, etc.) over the audience. Under these conditions, the frequency response and the subsequent equalization are determined from results that do not take into account the presence of people nor any other change that may occur in the room while the musical event takes place. In addition, this kind of equalization cannot be objectively readjusted during the event. In this contribution, a method to determine the frequency response of enclosures in an imperceptible way for the audience is presented. It involves including a test signal within a musical track that, thanks to the behaviour of human hearing, can be masked and successfully recovered using reference microphones. Hence, it is possible to obtain the room transfer function in the presence of public and perform the equalization adjustments while the music track is being played. The results agree completely with traditional methods, the great advantage being the possibility of performing the equalization at any moment during the musical event and in a transparent fashion with respect to the audience.     

New ultrasound imaging techniques with phase coherence processing

This work addresses three key subjects to the image quality with phased arrays: timing accuracy, beamforming strategy and post-processing for increased resolution and suppression of grating and side lobes.Timing accuracy is achieved by defining a modular and scalable architecture which guarantees low timing errors, whatever is the system size. The proposed beamforming methodology follows the progressive focusing correction technique, which keeps low focusing errors, provides a high information density and has a simple implementation for real-time imaging in modular architectures. Then, phase coherence imaging is defined to suppress grating and sidelobe indications, simultaneously increasing the lateral resolution.     

Lamb wave detection of limpet mines on ship hulls

This paper describes the use of ultrasonic guided waves for identifying the mass loading due to underwater limpet mines on ship hulls. The Dynamic Wavelet Fingerprint Technique (DFWT) is used to render the guided wave mode information in two-dimensional binary images because the waveform features of interest are too subtle to identify in time domain. The use of wavelets allows both time and scale features from the original signals to be retained, and image processing can be used to automatically extract features that correspond to the arrival times of the guided wave modes. For further understanding of how the guided wave modes propagate through the real structures, a parallel processing, 3D elastic wave simulation is developed using the finite integration technique (EFIT). This full field, technique models situations that are too complex for analytical solutions, such as built up 3D structures. The simulations have produced informative visualizations of the guided wave modes in the structures as well as mimicking directly the output from sensors placed in the simulation space for direct comparison to experiments. Results from both drydock and in-water experiments with dummy mines are also shown.     

Vibro-acoustic noise control treatments for payload bays of launch vehicles: Discrete to fuzzy solutions

Sound transmitted through an enclosing structure into a cavity has been minimised by optimising the locations, numbers and properties of tuned mass dampers placed on the structure and Helmholtz resonators placed in the cavity. Most of the results presented in the literature show the effect of a few well selected acoustic or vibration absorbers on simple vibro-acoustic systems, whereas the results presented here indicate the trends that occur when a few absorbers are replaced by a large number. The results indicate that for low numbers of absorbers, the result of the optimal configuration is to reduce the response of discrete modes, and for a large number of absorbers the result of the optimal configuration is a tendency for the vibro-acoustic energy to be smeared over a range of frequencies, which is similar to the results seen in fuzzy structures. The enormous computational task was achieved using a distributed computing network and an asynchronous parallel genetic algorithm.     

A method to identify acoustic reverberation in multilayered homogeneous media

The presence of reverberation is a source of artifacts that can hinder the analysis of ultrasound signals and images. Besides compromising image generation, these artifacts can introduce errors in the quantitative parameter estimation in fields such as material and biological tissue characterization. A method that allows the separation between the first reflection on an interface and all the other reflections from the same interface (reverberation) could improve the quality of these images as well as the precision and accuracy in quantitative results. This work presents an algorithm for the identification of reverberating echoes in multilayered media, based on the comparison of their power spectra (estimated via FFT), through a least mean square approach, and on the temporal relationship among them. It considers that the global effect from attenuation, reflection and transmission coefficients for each layer causes spectral differences that could differentiate echoes that pass through one layer or another. The results of 10 simulations and of 60 experiments, carried out with 6 different phantoms (10 experiments with each one) are presented and discussed. It was found that the algorithm provided a correct identification for 85% of the simulated and 86.6% of the experimental echoes collected from the 60 experiments.     

Sand/cement ratio evaluation on mortar using neural networks and ultrasonic transmission inspection

The quality and degradation state of building materials can be determined by nondestructive testing (NDT). These materials are composed of a cementitious matrix and particles or fragments of aggregates. Sand/cement ratio (s/c) provides the final material quality; however, the sand content can mask the matrix properties in a nondestructive measurement. Therefore, s/c ratio estimation is needed in nondestructive characterization of cementitious materials. In this study, a methodology to classify the sand content in mortar is presented. The methodology is based on ultrasonic transmission inspection, data reduction, and features extraction by principal components analysis (PCA), and neural network classification. This evaluation is carried out with several mortar samples, which were made while taking into account different cement types and s/c ratios. The estimated s/c ratio is determined by ultrasonic spectral attenuation with three different broadband transducers (0.5, 1, and 2 MHz). Statistical PCA to reduce the dimension of the captured traces has been applied. Feed-forward neural networks (NNs) are trained using principal components (PCs) and their outputs are used to display the estimated s/c ratios in false color images, showing the s/c ratio distribution of the mortar samples.     

Wavelet packet based analysis of sound fields in rooms using coincident microphone arrays

This paper presents a passive analysis method for determining the spatio-temporal characteristics of sound fields in small rooms. The analysis finds an approximate directional reflectogram (ADR) which reveals the approximate arrival directions, time delays and amplitudes of the direct sound and early reflections without using a special or known sound source. A coincident microphone array is used to obtain directional recordings. The recordings are analysed by wavelet packet decomposition to determine the direction of the sound source and select wavelet packet coefficients to reconstruct the estimate of the direct sound. ADR is then computed via deconvolution using this estimate. Experiments have been carried out using synthesized recordings that were obtained from actual room impulse responses measured in two rooms for various source locations. The method estimates the source direction with a mean absolute error of about 7°. Calculated ADRs provide a good estimate of the time delays and arrival directions of acoustical reflections, whereas the amplitudes differ slightly.     

Wavelet Leaders: A new method to estimate the multifractal singularity spectra

Wavelet Leaders is a novel alternative based on wavelet analysis for estimating the Multifractal Spectrum. It was proposed by Jaffard and co-workers improving the usual wavelet methods. In this work, we analyze and compare it with the well known Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis. The latter is a comprehensible and well adapted method for natural and weakly stationary signals. Alternatively, Wavelet Leaders exploits the wavelet self-similarity structures combined with the Multiresolution Analysis scheme. We give a brief introduction on the multifractal formalism and the particular implementation of the above methods and we compare their effectiveness. We expose several cases: Cantor measures, Binomial Multiplicative Cascades and also natural series from a tonic-clonic epileptic seizure. We analyze the results and extract the conclusions.     

Clustering of volatility as a multiscale phenomenon

The dynamics of prices in financial markets has been studied intensively both experimentally (data analysis) and theoretically (models). Nevertheless, a complete stochastic characterization of volatility is still lacking. What is well known is that absolute returns have memory on a long time range, this phenomenon is known as clustering of volatility. In this paper we show that volatility correlations are power-laws with a non-unique scaling exponent. This kind of multiscale phenomenology has some analogies with fully developed turbulence and disordered systems and it is now pointed out for financial series. Starting from historical returns series, we have also derived the volatility distribution, and the results are in agreement with a log-normal shape. In our study, we consider the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), daily composite index closes (January 1966 to June 1998) and the US Dollar/Deutsche Mark (USD-DM) noon buying rates certified by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (October 1989 to September 1998). Received 1 February 2000     

Acoustic detection of invisible damage in aircraft composite panels

The wing and body panels of modern commercial and military aircraft often consist of a three-layer structure in which two thin skins of fibre-reinforced composite or of aluminium are held apart by a much thicker core consisting of a honeycomb structure made from either folded paper-like material impregnated with aramid resin or from thin, folded aluminium sheet. A major maintenance inspection problem arises from the fact that impact by a heavy soft object has the potential to deflect the skin and damage the core, after which the skin can return to its original shape so that the defect is nearly invisible. This paper gives details of an acoustic inspection system that can reveal such damage and provide information on its nature and size using a hand-held “pitch-catch” device that can be scanned over the suspected area to produce a visual display on a computer screen. The whole system operates in the frequency range 10-30 kHz and embedded programs provide optimal examination procedures.     

一维双相介质孔隙率的小波多尺度反演

基于多尺度的思想,将小波多分辨分析和多尺度方法结合,构造了小波多尺度反演方法,并应用于一维双相介质孔隙率的反演.利用小波变换,将原始反问题分解为不同尺度上的一系列子反问题,并按照尺度从粗到细的顺序依次求解.在每一个尺度上,都采用稳定、收敛快的正则化高斯牛顿法求解,次一级尺度上求出的“全局最优解”作为上一级的初始解,依次类推,直到求出原始问题的真正的全局最优解.将小波多尺度方法归结为三种不同算子(分解算子、求解算子、插入算子)的交替应用,给出了小波多尺度反演算法的基本流程图,并推导出当采用Daubechie 关键词： 双相介质 反演 小波多尺度方法 孔隙率     

一维双相介质孔隙率的小波多尺度反演

基于多尺度的思想,将小波多分辨分析和多尺度方法结合，构造了小波多尺度反演方法，并应用于一维双相介质孔隙率的反演.利用小波变换，将原始反问题分解为不同尺度上的一系列子反问题，并按照尺度从粗到细的顺序依次求解.在每一个尺度上，都采用稳定、收敛快的正则化高斯牛顿法求解，次一级尺度上求出的“全局最优解”作为上一级的初始解，依次类推，直到求出原始问题的真正的全局最优解.将小波多尺度方法归结为三种不同算子(分解算子、求解算子、插入算子)的交替应用，给出了小波多尺度反演算法的基本流程图，并推导出当采用Daubechie     

Three-dimensional modelling of micromachined-ultrasonic-transducer arrays operating in water

We report on the 3-D modelling of periodic arrays of capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (cMUTs) operating in fluid. Specific developments have been performed to model biperiodic transducer arrays and to take into account radiation into any stratified media at the front-side as well as the back-side of the device. The model is based on a periodic finite-element-analysis/boundary-element-method (FEA/BEM). It is applied to micromachined ultrasonic transducers (MUTs), based on silicon-nitride-circular-membrane arrays on a silicon substrate, and operating in water. The spectrum characteristics of MUTs excited in phase are investigated, showing that very-large-band emission is achievable as previously demonstrated by many authors. However, other contributions are also found, depending on the excitation conditions, that do not radiate in the fluid. These contributions are identified as guided modes that could generate significant cross-talk effects. The origin and the nature of these modes is analyzed to gain insight in the actual operation of MUTs.     

Modeling of Lamb wave propagation in plate with two-dimensional phononic crystal layer coated on uniform substrate using plane-wave-expansion method

We show that the conversional three-dimensional plane wave expansion method can be revised to investigate the lamb wave propagation in the plate with two-dimensional phononic crystal layer coated on uniform substrate. We find that an imaginary three-dimensional periodic system can be constructed by stacking the studied plates and vacuum layers alternately, and then the Fourier series expansion can be performed. The difference between our imaginary periodic system and the true three-dimensional one is that, in our system, the Bloch feature of the wave along the thickness direction is broken. Three different systems are investigated by the proposed method as examples. The principle and reliability of the method are also discussed.