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Towards an Alternative to Time of Flight Diffraction Using Instantaneous Phase Coherence Imaging for Characterization of Crack-Like Defects

Time of flight diffraction (TOFD) is considered a reliable non-destructive testing method for the inspection of welds using a pair of single-element probes. On the other hand, ultrasonic phased array imaging has been continuously developed over the last couple of decades, and now features powerful a...

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Autores principales: Gauthier, Baptiste, Painchaud-April, Guillaume, Le Duff, Alain, Bélanger, Pierre
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7865572/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33499024
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21030730
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author Gauthier, Baptiste
Painchaud-April, Guillaume
Le Duff, Alain
Bélanger, Pierre
author_facet Gauthier, Baptiste
Painchaud-April, Guillaume
Le Duff, Alain
Bélanger, Pierre
author_sort Gauthier, Baptiste
collection PubMed
description Time of flight diffraction (TOFD) is considered a reliable non-destructive testing method for the inspection of welds using a pair of single-element probes. On the other hand, ultrasonic phased array imaging has been continuously developed over the last couple of decades, and now features powerful algorithms, such as the total focusing method (TFM) and its multi-view approach to rendering detailed images of inspected parts. This article focuses on a different implementation of the TFM algorithm, relying on the coherent summation of the instantaneous signal phase. This approach presents a wide range of benefits, such as removing the need for calibration, and is highly sensitive to defect tips. This study compares the sizing and localization capabilities of the proposed method with the well-known TOFD. Both instantaneous phase algorithm and TOFD do not take advantage of the signal amplitude. Experimental tests were performed on a ¾″-thick steel sample with crack-like defects at different angles. Phase-based imaging techniques showed similar characterization capabilities as the standard TOFD method. However, the proposed method adds the benefit of generating an easy-to-interpret image that can help in localizing the defect. These results pave the way for a new characterization approach, especially in the field of automated ultrasonic testing (AUT).
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spelling pubmed-78655722021-02-07 Towards an Alternative to Time of Flight Diffraction Using Instantaneous Phase Coherence Imaging for Characterization of Crack-Like Defects Gauthier, Baptiste Painchaud-April, Guillaume Le Duff, Alain Bélanger, Pierre Sensors (Basel) Article Time of flight diffraction (TOFD) is considered a reliable non-destructive testing method for the inspection of welds using a pair of single-element probes. On the other hand, ultrasonic phased array imaging has been continuously developed over the last couple of decades, and now features powerful algorithms, such as the total focusing method (TFM) and its multi-view approach to rendering detailed images of inspected parts. This article focuses on a different implementation of the TFM algorithm, relying on the coherent summation of the instantaneous signal phase. This approach presents a wide range of benefits, such as removing the need for calibration, and is highly sensitive to defect tips. This study compares the sizing and localization capabilities of the proposed method with the well-known TOFD. Both instantaneous phase algorithm and TOFD do not take advantage of the signal amplitude. Experimental tests were performed on a ¾″-thick steel sample with crack-like defects at different angles. Phase-based imaging techniques showed similar characterization capabilities as the standard TOFD method. However, the proposed method adds the benefit of generating an easy-to-interpret image that can help in localizing the defect. These results pave the way for a new characterization approach, especially in the field of automated ultrasonic testing (AUT). MDPI 2021-01-22 /pmc/articles/PMC7865572/ /pubmed/33499024 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21030730 Text en © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Gauthier, Baptiste
Painchaud-April, Guillaume
Le Duff, Alain
Bélanger, Pierre
Towards an Alternative to Time of Flight Diffraction Using Instantaneous Phase Coherence Imaging for Characterization of Crack-Like Defects
title Towards an Alternative to Time of Flight Diffraction Using Instantaneous Phase Coherence Imaging for Characterization of Crack-Like Defects
title_full Towards an Alternative to Time of Flight Diffraction Using Instantaneous Phase Coherence Imaging for Characterization of Crack-Like Defects
title_fullStr Towards an Alternative to Time of Flight Diffraction Using Instantaneous Phase Coherence Imaging for Characterization of Crack-Like Defects
title_full_unstemmed Towards an Alternative to Time of Flight Diffraction Using Instantaneous Phase Coherence Imaging for Characterization of Crack-Like Defects
title_short Towards an Alternative to Time of Flight Diffraction Using Instantaneous Phase Coherence Imaging for Characterization of Crack-Like Defects
title_sort towards an alternative to time of flight diffraction using instantaneous phase coherence imaging for characterization of crack-like defects
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7865572/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33499024
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21030730
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