Some Factors Affecting Time Reversal Signal Reconstruction

Abstract

Time reversal (TR) ultrasonic signal processing is now broadly used in a variety of applications, and also in NDE/NDT field. TR processing is used e.g. for S/N ratio enhancement, reciprocal transducer calibration, location, identification, and reconstruction of unknown sources, etc. TR procedure in con-junction with nonlinear elastic wave spectroscopy NEWS is also useful for sensitive detection of defects (nonlinearity presence). To enlarge possibilities of acoustic emission (AE) method, we proposed the use of TR signal reconstruction ability for detected AE signals transfer from a structure with AE source onto a similar remote model of the structure (real or numerical), which allows easier source analysis under laboratory conditions. Though the TR signal reconstruction is robust regarding the system variations, some small differences and changes influence space-time TR focus and reconstruction quality. Experiments were performed on metallic parts of both simple and complicated geometry to examine effects of small changes of temperature or configuration (body shape, dimensions, transducers placement, etc.) on TR reconstruction quality. Results of experiments are discussed in this paper. Considering mathematical similarity between TR and Coda Wave Interferometry (CWI), prediction of signal reconstruction quality was possible using only the direct propagation. The results show how some factors like temperature or stress changes may deteriorate the TR reconstruction quality. It is also shown that sometimes the reconstruction quality is not enhanced using longer TR signal (S/N ratio may decrease).