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A Study of Full-Angle Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique

  • ACOUSTIC METHODS
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Abstract

When ultrasounds are blocked by some obstacles or some areas cannot be illuminated by ultrasounds due to the complex shape of targets, the targets may not be detected by ultrasonic testing (UT). Thus, a simple and direct full-angle synthetic aperture focusing technique (SAFT) is proposed to conquer the above-mentioned difficulties, and its performance will be evaluated and compared with the commonly used B-scan SAFT. Two types of the full-angle scan are introduced in this study, the first one is the four-side scan which comprises top-, right-, bottom-, and left-side scans. The second is the circular scan which the transducer circulates and faces the center of the object during scanning. Then the acquired scan data is processed by SAFT. Study results show that the images of full-angle SAFT are significantly superior to the image of the traditional B-scan SAFT. This indicates the ultrasonic detection ability is largely improved by the full-angle SAFT. However, the traditional B-scan SAFT is simple and direct which is recommended to detect the existence of the shallowest targets. For detecting the deeper targets, which may be blocked by some obstacles, the four-side scan SAFT is suggested since this method has a better detection capability to detect the extreme positions of the targets. The image of the circular scan SAFT is fine, which shows this technique has a better focus capability since the transducer inspects the specimen from full-azimuth. Thus, to reveal the shape of being blocked target, the circular scan SAFT is suggested.

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Funding

This work was supported by ongoing institutional funding. No additional grants to carry out or direct this particular research were obtained.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Seismology, National Chung Cheng University, 62102, Chiayi, Taiwan

    Jia-Wei Liu & Young-Fo Chang

  2. Green Energy and Environment Research Laboratories, Industrial Technology Research Institute, 31040, Hsinchu, Taiwan

    Jia-Wei Liu

  3. Department of Electronic Engineering, Hsiuping University of Science and Technology, 41280, Taichung, Taiwan

    Chao-Ming Lin

  4. Department of Biomechatronic Engineering and Research Center for Automation, National Chiayi University, 60004, Chiayi, Taiwan

    Chih-Hsiung Chang

Authors
  1. Jia-Wei Liu
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  2. Young-Fo Chang
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  3. Chao-Ming Lin
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  4. Chih-Hsiung Chang
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Correspondence to Young-Fo Chang.

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Liu, JW., Chang, YF., Lin, CM. et al. A Study of Full-Angle Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique. Russ J Nondestruct Test 59, 640–653 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1061830923600235

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1061830923600235

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