Ultrasonic time-reversal-based imaging for rapid non-destructive evaluation

Abstract

In this paper, a fast ultrasonic imaging process based on the time-reversal technique was introduced into the non-destructive evaluation (NDE) field. It processed the ultrasonic array data when a specific number of array elements were chosen as the transmitters and receivers rather than all of them. As a typical time-reversal-based imaging technique, time reversal with multiple signal classification can be implemented on the central frequency and multi-frequency of the array. It was considered to image the defects in solid materials with different noise levels. The performance was estimated in terms of computational time and reconstruction quality. A factor was defined to quantitatively estimate the quality of the ultrasonic image. In addition, the effect of a large element pitch on the ultrasonic image was also considered. An experimental system was built to capture the ultrasonic array data using the full matrix capture (FMC) process. Experimental results performed on test samples showed that the method proposed in this paper can obtain the ultrasonic image. Its quality was close to the standard ultrasonic image achieved and the imaging time decreased.