scholarly journals High Frequency Ultrasonic Wave Propagation in  Anisotropic Materials

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Andrew Paul Dawson

<p>The influence of highly regular, anisotropic, microstructured materials on high frequency ultrasonic wave propagation was investigated in this work. Microstructure, often only treated as a source of scattering, significantly influences high frequency ultrasonic waves, resulting in unexpected guided wave modes. Tissues, such as skin or muscle, are treated as homogeneous by current medical ultrasound systems, but actually consist of highly anisotropic micron-sized fibres. As these systems increase towards 100 MHz, these fibres will significantly influence propagating waves leading to guided wave modes. The effect of these modes on image quality must be considered. However, before studies can be undertaken on fibrous tissues, wave propagation in more ideal structures must be first understood. After the construction of a suitable high frequency ultrasound experimental system, finite element modelling and experimental characterisation of high frequency (20-200 MHz) ultrasonic waves in ideal, collinear, nanostructured alumina was carried out. These results revealed interesting waveguiding phenomena, and also identified the potential and significant advantages of using a microstructured material as an alternative acoustic matching layer in ultrasonic transducer design. Tailorable acoustic impedances were achieved from 4-17 MRayl, covering the impedance range of 7-12 MRayl most commonly required by transducer matching layers. Attenuation coefficients as low as 3.5 dBmm-1 were measured at 100 MHz, which is excellent when compared with 500 dBmm-1 that was measured for a state of the art loaded epoxy matching layer at the same frequency. Reception of ultrasound without the restriction of critical angles was also achieved, and no dispersion was observed in these structures (unlike current matching layers) until at least 200 MHz. In addition, to make a significant step forward towards high frequency tissue characterisation, novel microstructured poly(vinyl alcohol) tissue-mimicking phantoms were also developed. These phantoms possessed acoustic and microstructural properties representative of fibrous tissues, much more realistic than currently used homogeneous phantoms. The attenuation coefficient measured along the direction of PVA alignment in an example phantom was 8 dBmm-1 at 30 MHz, in excellent agreement with healthy human myocardium. This method will allow the fabrication of more realistic and repeatable phantoms for future high frequency tissue characterisation studies.</p>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Andrew Paul Dawson

<p>The influence of highly regular, anisotropic, microstructured materials on high frequency ultrasonic wave propagation was investigated in this work. Microstructure, often only treated as a source of scattering, significantly influences high frequency ultrasonic waves, resulting in unexpected guided wave modes. Tissues, such as skin or muscle, are treated as homogeneous by current medical ultrasound systems, but actually consist of highly anisotropic micron-sized fibres. As these systems increase towards 100 MHz, these fibres will significantly influence propagating waves leading to guided wave modes. The effect of these modes on image quality must be considered. However, before studies can be undertaken on fibrous tissues, wave propagation in more ideal structures must be first understood. After the construction of a suitable high frequency ultrasound experimental system, finite element modelling and experimental characterisation of high frequency (20-200 MHz) ultrasonic waves in ideal, collinear, nanostructured alumina was carried out. These results revealed interesting waveguiding phenomena, and also identified the potential and significant advantages of using a microstructured material as an alternative acoustic matching layer in ultrasonic transducer design. Tailorable acoustic impedances were achieved from 4-17 MRayl, covering the impedance range of 7-12 MRayl most commonly required by transducer matching layers. Attenuation coefficients as low as 3.5 dBmm-1 were measured at 100 MHz, which is excellent when compared with 500 dBmm-1 that was measured for a state of the art loaded epoxy matching layer at the same frequency. Reception of ultrasound without the restriction of critical angles was also achieved, and no dispersion was observed in these structures (unlike current matching layers) until at least 200 MHz. In addition, to make a significant step forward towards high frequency tissue characterisation, novel microstructured poly(vinyl alcohol) tissue-mimicking phantoms were also developed. These phantoms possessed acoustic and microstructural properties representative of fibrous tissues, much more realistic than currently used homogeneous phantoms. The attenuation coefficient measured along the direction of PVA alignment in an example phantom was 8 dBmm-1 at 30 MHz, in excellent agreement with healthy human myocardium. This method will allow the fabrication of more realistic and repeatable phantoms for future high frequency tissue characterisation studies.</p>


2013 ◽  
Vol 284-287 ◽  
pp. 572-576
Author(s):  
Javad Abbaszadeh ◽  
Herlina Abdul Rahim ◽  
Ruzairi Abdul Rahim ◽  
Sahar Sarafi

Ultrasonic Tomography has a dominant role in industry to generate cross sectional images of any object. In this paper, method of designing an Ultrasonic Tomography System due to the propagation manner of ultrasonic wave inside the various materials is investigated. The correct method of mounting of Ultrasonic sensors and behavior of the ultrasonic wave propagation in different layers has been simulated by the use of finite element software (COMSOL Multiphysics 3.5). To increase in practical nondestructive evaluation and inspection, we should increase our understanding of the basic physics and wave mechanics associated with guided wave inspection. A suitable ultrasonic sensor base on its efficiency and satisfying the simulation criteria is found and practically implemented on the surface of metal pipe. it is done by estimating the resonance frequency of sensor due to manner of ultrasonic wave propagation in different frequencies shown in simulation results. The proposed optimum frequency for the applied sensors is 40 kHz in which is tested practically and experimental results prove the high efficiency of this system.


2012 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 484-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Tallavo ◽  
Mahesh D. Pandey ◽  
Giovanni Cascante

Wood poles are widely used in North America to support power electric transmission and distribution lines. Wood poles are continuously exposed to wide ranging temperature and moisture conditions, making them vulnerable to internal decay and rotting. The resulting loss of strength makes the poles vulnerable to failure under adverse weather conditions, such as wind and snow storms. These failures can result in forced outages and customer disruptions with significant economic losses. Ultrasonic testing is a non-destructive method that has been used for detection of internal deterioration of in-service wood poles, which is based on the comparison of the measured wave velocity with a reference wave velocity associated with sound wood. The current ultrasonic methods assume that the reference wave velocity for a given wood species is constant in a pole cross section. This approach is simplistic because wood is an orthotropic material with highly variable material properties. This paper presents a method for probabilistic characterization of ultrasonic wave propagation in wood poles considering wood as an orthotropic material. A better understanding and characterization of ultrasonic wave propagation in a pole cross section will contribute to improve the condition assessment of in-service wood poles based on ultrasonic tests. As an example, P-wave velocity, surface waves, frequency response function, and magnitude spectrum area are used to characterize the propagation of ultrasonic waves at a cross section of a Douglas-fir pole of 25 cm diameter.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (18) ◽  
pp. 5329
Author(s):  
Dai Quoc Tran ◽  
Ju-Won Kim ◽  
Kassahun Demissie Tola ◽  
Wonkyu Kim ◽  
Seunghee Park

The application of deep learning (DL) algorithms to non-destructive evaluation (NDE) is now becoming one of the most attractive topics in this field. As a contribution to such research, this study aims to investigate the application of DL algorithms for detecting and estimating the looseness in bolted joints using a laser ultrasonic technique. This research was conducted based on a hypothesis regarding the relationship between the true contact area of the bolt head-plate and the guided wave energy lost while the ultrasonic waves pass through it. First, a Q-switched Nd:YAG pulsed laser and an acoustic emission sensor were used as exciting and sensing ultrasonic signals, respectively. Then, a 3D full-field ultrasonic data set was created using an ultrasonic wave propagation imaging (UWPI) process, after which several signal processing techniques were applied to generate the processed data. By using a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) with a VGG-like architecture based regression model, the estimated error was calculated to compare the performance of a DCNN on different processed data set. The proposed approach was also compared with a K-nearest neighbor, support vector regression, and deep artificial neural network for regression to demonstrate its robustness. Consequently, it was found that the proposed approach shows potential for the incorporation of laser-generated ultrasound and DL algorithms. In addition, the signal processing technique has been shown to have an important impact on the DL performance for automatic looseness estimation.


Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 2684 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Lionetto ◽  
Francesco Montagna ◽  
Alfonso Maffezzoli

Out-of-plane permeability of reinforcement preforms is of crucial importance in the infusion of large and thick composite panels, but so far, there are no standard experimental methods for its determination. In this work, an experimental set-up for the measurement of unsaturated through thickness permeability based on the ultrasonic wave propagation in pulse echo mode is presented. A single ultrasonic transducer, working both as emitter and receiver of ultrasonic waves, was used to monitor the through thickness flow front during a vacuum assisted resin infusion experiment. The set-up was tested on three thick carbon fiber preforms, obtained by stacking thermal bonding of balanced or unidirectional plies either by automated fiber placement either by hand lay-up of unidirectional plies. The ultrasonic data were used to calculate unsaturated out-of-plane permeability using Darcy’s law. The permeability results were compared with saturated out-of-plane permeability, determined by a traditional gravimetric method, and validated by some analytical models. The results demonstrated the feasibility and potential of the proposed set-up for permeability measurements thanks to its noninvasive character and the one-side access.


Author(s):  
Daniel Chew ◽  
Bernard Masserey ◽  
Paul Fromme

Abstract Adverse environmental conditions result in corrosion during the life cycle of marine structures such as pipelines, offshore oil platforms, and ships. Generalized corrosion leading to the loss of wall thickness can cause the degradation of the integrity, strength, and load bearing capacity of the structure. Nondestructive detection and monitoring of corrosion damage in difficult to access areas can be achieved using high-frequency guided waves propagating along the structure. Using standard ultrasonic wedge transducers with single-sided access to the structure, specific high-frequency guided wave modes (overlap of both fundamental Lamb wave modes) were generated that penetrate through the complete thickness of the structure. The wave propagation and interference of the guided wave modes depend on the thickness of the structure and were measured using a noncontact laser interferometer. Numerical simulations using a two-dimensional finite element model were performed to visualize and predict the guided wave propagation and energy transfer across the plate thickness. During laboratory experiments, the wall thickness was reduced uniformly by milling of one steel plate specimen. In a second step, wall thickness reduction was induced using accelerated corrosion for two mild steel plates. The corrosion damage was monitored based on the effect on the wave propagation and interference (beating effect) of the Lamb wave modes in the frequency domain. Good agreement of the measured beatlengths with theoretical predictions was achieved, and the sensitivity of the methodology was ascertained, showing that high-frequency guided waves have the potential for corrosion damage monitoring at critical and difficult to access locations.


1973 ◽  
Vol 51 (12) ◽  
pp. 1350-1358 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Vrba ◽  
R. R. Haering

An analysis of phonon maser action in CdS is given which includes the complications arising from the presence of off-axis ultrasonic waves. The treatment includes the angular variation of the velocity of sound and of the piezoelectric coupling constant and takes account of mode conversion at the cavity walls. Numerical results are given for CdS maser structures.


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