Effect of the Grain Sizes on the Ultrasonic Propagation and Attenuation on Different Types of Steels Microstructure During Non-Destructive Testing

In this paper we have proposed an experimental study of the steel grains sizes effect on the shift frequency of the ultrasonic waves being propagated in steels. Ultrasonic testing has been used in most inspection services for different materials as non-destructive testing. The novelty of our research work has been focused on the investigation of the new method for determining microstructure evolution of metals by using ultrasonic signals in conjunction with changes in grain size and hardness of steels. Furthermore, we have studied the microstructure of steel types S355, S275, Corten B and S275N. The microstructure results of steels have shown the changes that have been undergone from thermal and mechanical processes by using the attenuation of ultrasound waves during non-destructive testing.

Numerical model for enhancing stimulated Brillouin scattering in optical microfibers

Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) is useful, among others for generating slow light, sensing and amplification. SBS was previously viewed as a poor method due to the limitation on optical power in high-powered photonic applications. However, considering the many possible applications using SBS, it is now of interest to enhance SBS in areas of Brillouin frequency shift together with Brillouin Gain. A numerical model, using a fully vectorial approach, by employing the finite element method, was developed to investigate methods for enhancing SBS in optical fiber. This paper describes the method related to the numerical model and discusses the analysis between the interactions of horizontal, shear and hybrid acoustic modes; and optical modes in optical fiber. Two case studies were used to demonstrate this. Based on this numerical model, we report the influence of core radius, clad radius and effective refractive index on the Brillouin frequency shift and gain. We observe the difference of Brillouin shift frequency between a normal silica optical fiber and that of a tapered fiber where nonlinearities are higher. Also observed, the different core radii used and their respective Brillouin shift. For future work, the COMSOL model can also be used for the following areas of research, including simulating “surface Brillouin shift” and also to provide in-sights to the Brillouin shift frequency vB of various structures of waveguides, e.g circular, and triangular, and also to examine specialty fibers, e.g. Thulium and Chalcogenide doped fibers, and their effects on Brillouin shift frequency.

Experimental Investigation of Ocean Wave Measurement Using Short-Range K-Band Radar: Dock-Based and Boat-Based Wind Wave Measurements

In this paper, an ocean wave measurement technique and a newly developed short-range K-band radar are tested. In previous work, the technique and its feasibility were studied based on numerical simulations and wave tank experiments, while its performance at sea was still unknown. Surface current, Stokes drift, and wave breaking can greatly complicate interpreting radar backscatters. The feasibility of the technique needed to be further investigated with sea experiments. Experiments were carried out at a stationary site and from a moving platform. The short-range K-band radar transmitted continuous wave and received backscatters at low-grazing angles. The Bragg-scattering from the radar’s effective footprint dominated the backscatters. The Doppler shift frequency of the Bragg-scattering was attributed to the phase velocity of Bragg waves and modulated by the surface motions induced by current, Stokes drift, platform, and gravity waves. These sources of the Doppler shift frequency were analyzed, and the components induced by wind waves were successfully retrieved and converted into wave spectra that were consistent with the measurements of wave rider buoy. The experimental investigation further validated the feasibility of using short-range K-band radar to measure ocean waves.

The Influence of Laser Linewidth on the Brillouin Shift Frequency Accuracy of BOTDR

This paper analyzes the influence of laser linewidth on the measurement accuracy of a frequency-scanning Brillouin optical time domain reflectometer (FS-BOTDR), allowing for both the width of Brillouin gain spectrum and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the BOTDR system. The measurement accuracy of the Brillouin frequency shift (BFS) is theoretically investigated versus the duration of the probe pulse and the linewidth of the laser source, by numerically simulating how a FS-BOTDR works and evaluating the Brillouin gain spectrum (BGS) width and the system SNR. The simulation results show that the BFS accuracy is improved as the laser linewidth becomes narrower when the probe pulse width is fixed. We utilize five types of lasers with respective linewidths of 1.05 MHz, 101 kHz, 10.2 kHz, 3.1 kHz, and 98 Hz to compare the BFS measurement accuracy over a ~10 km optical sensing fiber. The experimental results demonstrate that the root-mean-square error (RMSE) of BFS decreases with the laser linewidth narrowing from 1.05 MHz to 3.1 kHz, which is in good agreement with the numerical simulation. However, the RMSE of BFS increases when the laser linewidth is less than 3.1 kHz, which may arise from the coherent Rayleigh noise due to a too narrow laser linewidth. The results can provide a theoretical basis and experimental guidance for choosing the appropriate laser linewidth in BOTDR.

A Novel Waveform Design Method for Shift-Frequency Jamming Confirmation

Shift-frequency jamming is generally used to form range false targets for ground-based early-warning radar systems; the frequency shift value of such interference is larger than the Doppler shift value of the moving target, and the key element to suppress the shift-frequency jamming is the frequency shift value estimation. However, in the low- or medium-pulse repetition frequency (PRF) mode, it is challenging to estimate the accurate frequency shift due to the velocity ambiguity. To solve this problem, a novel sparse Doppler-sensitive waveform is designed based on the ambiguity function theory, where the basic idea is to design a waveform sensitive to a specific Doppler but insensitive to other Dopplers; therefore, this waveform can recognize the specific Doppler of the target unambiguously. To apply the designed waveform in practice, the detection and estimation processing flow is provided based on the waveform diversity technique and the family of the sparse Doppler-sensitive waveforms. Simulation experiments are presented to validate the efficiency of the proposed method, and we conclude that the advantage of this method is that it can be used to confirm the specific Doppler of the target unambiguously with few pulses even under the condition of a low PRF.