Air-coupled Ultrasound Research Articles

Air-coupled ferroelectret ultrasonic transducers for nondestructive testing of wood-based materials

Air-coupled ultrasound (ACU) is used in through transmission to detect delamination, rot, and cracks in wood without altering the structure permanently. Novel ferroelectret transducers with a high signal-to-noise ratio enable high-precision structure recognition. Transducers made of cellular polypropylene are quite suitable for ACU testing due to their extremely low Young’s modulus and low density resulting in a favorable acoustic impedance for the transmission of ultrasonic waves between the transducer and air. Thus, structures with great dimensions, with a thickness of up to 300 mm and material densities below 500 kg/m3, can be inspected. Promising results were obtained under laboratory conditions with frequencies ranging from 90 to 200 kHz. The advantage of ACU transducers is that they do not require contact to the sample; they are accurate and cost-effective. Ultrasonic quality assurance for wood is an important avenue to increase the acceptance of wooden structures and toward sustainability in civil engineering in general.

Research on the Transmission Characteristics of Air-Coupled Ultrasound in Double-Layered Bonded Structures.

The ultrasonic transmission spectrum in a double-layered bonded structure is related closely to its interfacial stiffness. Consequently, researching the regularity of the transmission spectrum is of significant interest in evaluating the integrity of the bonded structure. Based on the spring model and the potential function theory, a theoretical model is developed by the transfer matrix method to predict the transmission spectrum in a double-layered bonded structure. Some shift rules of the transmission peaks are obtained by numerical calculation of this model with different substrates. The results show that the resonant transmission peaks move towards a higher frequency with the increase of the normal interfacial stiffness, and each of them has different movement distances with the increasing interfacial stiffness. Indeed, it is also observed that the movement starting points of these peaks are at the specific frequency at which the thickness of either substrate plate equals an integral multiple of half a wavelength. The results from measuring the bonding specimens, which have different interfacial properties and different substrates in this experiment, are utilized to verify the theoretical analysis. Though the theory of “starting points” is not demonstrated effectively, the shift direction and distance exactly match with the result from the theoretical algorithm.

Development of Fuel Debris Inspection Methods using Air-Coupled Ultrasound

Japan has decided to start fuel debris removal on 2021. Therefore, before starting retrieval of the fuel debris, investigation of location, shape, and also properties of fuel debris have to be performed. In this study, air-coupled ultrasound technique had been developed in order to visualize of fuel debris. Firstly, simulated fuel debris was represented by stone and experiment was done in laboratory scale. Flat and focused air-coupled ultrasound were used as a sensor to get echo signals of the target surface. Results showed that both flat and focused sensor successfully reconstructed the flat surface image in good spatial resolution. However, flat air-coupled transducer shown unstructured. On the other hand, focused air-coupled ultrasound shown good performance when target surface was unstructured. Therefore, it was recommended to used focused sensor when target surface was unstructured like simulated fuel debris.

Calculation of Volumetric Sound Field of Pulsed Air-Coupled Ultrasound Transducers Based on Single-Plane Measurements.

Quantitative and reproducible air-coupled ultrasound (ACU) testing requires characterization of the volumetric pressure fields radiated by ACU probes. In this paper, a closed-form reradiation method combining the Rayleigh-Sommerfeld integral and time-reversal acoustics is proposed, which allows calculation of both near- field and far-field based on a single-plane measurement. The method was validated for both 3-D (circular, square) and 2-D (rectangular) planar transducers in the 50-230 kHz range. The pressure fields were scanned with a calibrated microphone. The measurement window was at least four times the size of the transducer area and the grid step size was one third of the wavelength. Best results were observed by acquiring the measurement plane at near-field distance. The method accurately reproduces pulsed ultrasound waveforms and pressure distributions (RMSE <2.5% in far field and <5.5% in near field), even at the transducer radiation surface. The effects of speed of sound drifts during the scan in the pressure were negligible (RMSE <0.3%). The reradiation method clearly outperforms conventional baffled piston models. Possible applications are transducer manufacture control (imperfections at radiation surface) and calibration (on-axis pressure, side lobes, and beamwidth) together with generation of accurate source functions for quantitative nondestructive evaluation inverse problems.

Nondestructive diagnosis of flip chips based on vibration analysis using PCA-RBF

Flip chip technology combined with solder bump interconnection has been widely applied in IC package. The solder bumps are sandwiched between dies and substrates, leading to conventional techniques being difficult to diagnose the flip chips. Meanwhile, these conventional diagnosis methods are usually performed by human visual judgment. The human eye-fatigue can easily cause fault detection. Thus, it is difficult and crucial to detect the defects of flip chips automatically. In this paper, a nondestructive diagnosis system based on vibration analysis is proposed. The flip chip is excited by air-coupled ultrasounds and raw vibration signals are measured by a laser scanning vibrometer. Forty-two features are extracted for analysis, including ten time domain features, sixteen frequency domain features and sixteen wavelet packet energy features. Principal component analysis is used for feature reduction. Radial basis function neural network is adopted for classification and recognition. Flip chips in three states (good flip chips, flip chips with missing solder bumps and flip chips with open solder bumps) are utilized to validate the proposed method. The results demonstrate that this method is effective for defect inspection in flip chip package.

Analytical modeling, finite-difference simulation and experimental validation of air-coupled ultrasound beam refraction and damping through timber laminates, with application to non-destructive testing

Reliable non-destructive testing (NDT) ultrasound systems for timber composite structures require quantitative understanding of the propagation of ultrasound beams in wood. A finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) model is described, which incorporates local anisotropy variations of stiffness, damping and density in timber elements. The propagation of pulsed air-coupled ultrasound (ACU) beams in normal and slanted incidence configurations is reproduced by direct definition of material properties (gas, solid) at each model pixel. First, the model was quantitatively validated against analytical derivations. Time-varying wavefronts in unbounded timber with curved growth rings were accurately reproduced, as well as the acoustic properties (velocity, attenuation, beam skewing) of ACU beams transmitted through timber lamellas. An experimental sound field imaging (SFI) setup was implemented at NDT frequencies (120kHz), which for specific beam incidence positions allows spatially resolved ACU field characterization at the receiver side. The good agreement of experimental and modeled beam shifts across timber laminates allowed extrapolation of the inner propagation paths. The modeling base is an orthotropic stiffness dataset for the desired wood species. In cross-grain planes, beam skewing leads to position-dependent wave paths. They are well-described in terms of the growth ring curvature, which is obtained by visual observation of the laminate. Extraordinary refraction phenomena were observed, which lead to well-collimated quasi-shear wave coupling at grazing beam incidence angles. The anisotropic damping in cross-grain planes is satisfactorily explained in terms of the known anisotropic stiffness dataset and a constant loss tangent. The incorporation of high-resolution density maps (X-ray computed tomography) provided insight into ultrasound scattering effects in the layered growth ring structure. Finally, the combined potential of the FDTD model and the SFI setup for material property and defect inversion in anisotropic materials was demonstrated. A portable SFI demonstrator was implemented with a multi-sensor MEMs receiver array that captures and compensates for variable wave propagation paths in glued laminated timber, and improves the imaging of lamination defects.

Air-coupled ultrasound and electrical impedance analyses of normally dried and thermally modified Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris)

Wood is graded according to strength in various applications. The ultimate strength can only be determined by breaking the specimen, and thus other characteristics like density and modulus of elasticity (MOE) are used for estimation of the strength. In this study, the properties of normally dried and thermally modified Scots pine were studied using electrical impedance and air-coupled ultrasound (ACU) methods. Density, hardness, MOE and strength were analysed and compared with the electrical and ultrasonic responses. The measurements were conducted in stable laboratory conditions with well equilibrated samples and the moisture content was not determined. Both the ultrasonic and electrical parameters correlated with the density and mechanical properties. Using multivariate analysis, density could be estimated with accuracy of 21 kg/m3 (SD) for normally dried timber and 13 kg/m3 (SD) for thermally modified timber (TMT; N = 15). MOE could be estimated with accuracy of 0.7 kN/mm2 (SD) for normally dried timber and 1 kN/mm2 (SD) for TMT (N = 14). According to the study, electrical impedance spectroscopy combined with ACU measured across the grain is a potential non-destructive technique for the strength estimation of wood.

Non-destructive evaluation of checking in thermally modified timber

Non-destructive measurement techniques were used to study the characteristics of thermally modified timber (TMT), especially checking. Two non-destructive measurement techniques were evaluated: air-coupled ultrasound (ACU) and electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). In the studied TMT (N = 38), density and pith location in the cross-section were positively correlated with the number of checks in the cross-section. Several ultrasound signal features correlated with TMT characteristics, most strongly with number of checks. Severely checked samples and other samples were considered as two different classes of checking, and the potential of ultrasound for differentiating between the two classes was tested by using Bayesian classification method. The correct classification rate was 97 %. EIS parameters correlated with density and latewood content of TMT more strongly than the ACU parameters. Thus, for determination of checking and density or earlywood/latewood content, both EIS and ACU measurements are recommended.

Novel slanted incidence air-coupled ultrasound method for delamination assessment in individual bonding planes of structural multi-layered glued timber laminates

Non-destructive assessment of delaminations in glued laminated timber structures is required during their full life cycle. A novel air-coupled ultrasound (ACU) method has been developed, which is able to separately detect delaminations in individual bonding planes of arbitrarily high and long laminated stacks and typically 200mm wide. The 120kHz ACU transmitter–receiver pair is positioned at two opposite lateral faces of the sample, with a small inclination with respect to the inspected bonding planes, so that an ultrasound beam is excited at a user-defined refraction angle within the sample, interacting with defects in a limited height portion of the stack. The attenuation of the ultrasound beam transmitted across the defect (negative detection) provided better sensitivity to defects than the scattered fields (positive detection), which are masked by spurious fields. Dedicated finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations provided understanding on the wave propagation and defect detectability limits, with respect to the heterogeneous anisotropic material structure introduced by the curvature of the annual rings in individual timber lamellas. A simplified analytical expression was derived to calculate refraction angles in timber in function of insonification angle and ring angle. Experimental results show that the method is able to detect >20% wide defects in both isotropic material and in glulam with straight year rings, and >50% wide and 100mm long defects in commercial glulam beams. The discrimination of defects from background variability is optimized by normalizing the images with respect to reference defect-free sample sections (normalization) or previous measurements (difference imaging), and by combining readings obtained with distinct ultrasound beam refraction angles (spatial diversity). Future work aims at the development of a tomographic defect inspection by combining the described theoretical and experimental methods.

2P2-19 Characterization of Skewed Rough Surface by Aircoupled Ultrasound(Poster Session)

2P2-19 Characterization of Skewed Rough Surface by Aircoupled Ultrasound(Poster Session)

C212 空中超音波を用いた非接触での配管内流量計測法に関する研究(OS9 熱・流動(4))

C212 空中超音波を用いた非接触での配管内流量計測法に関する研究(OS9 熱・流動(4))

Modeling and prediction of density distribution and microstructure in particleboards from acoustic properties by correlation of non-contact high-resolution pulsed air-coupled ultrasound and X-ray images

Non-destructive density and microstructure quality control testing in particleboards (PBs) is necessary in production lines. A pulsed air-coupled ultrasound (ACU) high-resolution normal transmission system, together with a first wave tracking algorithm, were developed to image amplitude transmission Gp and velocity cp distributions at 120kHz for PBs of specific nominal densities and five particle geometries, which were then correlated to X-ray in-plane density images ρs. Test PBs with a homogeneous vertical density profile were manufactured in a laboratory environment and conditioned in a standard climate (T=20°C, RH=65%) before the measurements. Continuous trends (R2>0.97) were obtained by matching the lateral resolution of X-ray images with the ACU sound field radius (σwo=21mm) and by clustering the scatter plots. ρs↦cp was described with a three-parameter non-linear model for each particle geometry, allowing for ACU density prediction with 3% uncertainty and PB testing according to EN312. ρs↦Gp was modeled by calculating ACU coupling gain and by fitting inverse power laws with offset of ρs and cp to material attenuation, which scaled with particle volume. Gp and cp variations with the frequency were examined, showing thickness resonances and scattering attenuation. The combination of ACU and X-ray data enabled successful particle geometry classification. The observed trends were interpreted in terms of multi-scale porosity and grain scattering with finite-difference time-domain simulations, which modeled arbitrarily complex stiffness and density distributions. The proposed method allows for non-contact determination of relations between acoustic properties and in-plane density distribution in plate materials. In future work, commercial PBs with non-uniform vertical density profiles should be investigated.

Non-Contact Measurement of Nugget Size of Spot Welding Using Focused Air-Coupled Ultrasound

Spot welding is widely used in the various fields of engineering and industries. Since the size, shape and mechanical properties of a nugget which is a zone melted and re-solidified during welding are closely related to the strength of the welded structure, quantitative evaluations of them are strongly required. In this work, an air-coupled ultrasound technique with focused transducers has been used for non-contact measurements of spot welds of steel plates. One-dimensional scanning in transmission configuration using a pair of focused air-coupled ultrasonic transducers operating with tone burst waves at 0.3 MHz is performed to obtain the amplitude profile of the transmitted ultrasound through the nugget area of a spot weld. A simple method for determining the nugget size from the profile of the transmitted ultrasound is proposed. To verify the validity of the method, calibration samples which imitate spot welds having different sizes of nuggets are prepared and used for demonstrating nugget size determinations. In addition, the proposed method has been applied to evaluate several spot welds fabricated with different electric currents (5 kA – 9 kA).

Air-coupled ultrasound inspection of glued laminated timber

Abstract A novel air-coupled ultrasound (ACU) 120 kHz normal transmission system enabled successful imaging of bonding and saw cut defects in multilayered glulam beams up to 280 mm in height with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 40 dB. The main wave propagation paths were modeled; quasi-longitudinal and quasi-transverse modes were coupled in each lamella and the sound field was found to be shifted from the insonification axis as a function of the ring angle, leading to interference of wave paths in the receiver and to 15 dB amplitude variability in defect-free glulam. The assessment was improved with spatial processing algorithms that profited from the arbitrary scanning resolution and high reproducibility of ACU. Overlapped averaging reduced in-band noise by 15 dB, amplitude tracking captured only the first incoming oscillation, thus minimizing diffraction around defect regions, and image normalization compensated 6 dB of systematic amplitude variability across the fiber direction. The application of ACU to in situ defect monitoring was demonstrated by using multiparameter difference imaging of measurements of the same sample with and without saw cut defects. The segmentation of the defect geometry was improved significantly and the amplitude variability was reduced by 10 dB. Further work is planned to model additional insonification setups and grain and density heterogeneities.

Non-Contact Determination of Nugget Size of Spot-Welding Using Focused Air-Coupled Ultrasound

Since the size and shape of a nugget of a spot weld are closely related to the bonding strength of the weld, their quantitative evaluations are very important to improve the reliability of the welded structures. In this work, a focused air-coupled ultrasound technique has been used for non-contact measurements of spot welds of steel plates. One-dimensional scanning in transmission configuration using a pair of focused air-coupled ultrasonic transducers operating with tone burst waves at 0.3 MHz is performed to obtain the amplitude profile of the transmitted ultrasound through the nugget area of a spot weld. A simple method for determining the nugget size from the amplitude profile is proposed. The validity of the method is verified using a calibration sample which imitates a spot weld. The proposed method has then been applied to the evaluations of spot welds fabricated with different electric currents.

Air-Coupled Lamb and Rayleigh Waves for Remote NDE of Defects and Material Elastic Properties

Conventional air-coupled ultrasound (ACU) is a well-established tool for acoustic NDT and material characterization. Its major shortcoming is concerned with a week penetration into solid materials due to a severe impedance mismatch at the air-solid interface. A dramatic rise in acoustic coupling is obtained by using acoustic mode conversion into plate and surface waves in slanted configurations. In our experiments, an increase of the ultrasound amplitude by up to one order of magnitude was observed in various materials (metals, wood, concrete, composite) under phase matching conditions. On this basis, fully air-coupled configurations are developed and applied for non-contact NDT. The methods based on this principle enable precise measurements of fibre directions and quantification of in-plane anisotropy in composites and natural materials, elastic depth profiling, drying of coatings, advanced imaging of cracked defects and delaminations.

Air-coupled ultrasound as an accurate and reproducible method for bonding assessment of glued timber

Glued timber products are widely used in construction; therefore, it is necessary to develop non-destructive bonding quality assessment methods for long-term structural health monitoring. Air-coupled ultrasound (ACU) inspection is a novel technique, with phenomenal improvements in reproducibility compared to traditional contact ultrasonics, unlimited scanning possibilities, and a high potential for delamination detection in wood products. As part of an ongoing project, glued timber samples of 10 mm thickness with artificial glue line defects were inspected. A normal through-transmission set-up with 120 kHz transducers allowed for successful and accurate imaging of the geometry of glued and non-glued areas in all inspected objects. The influence of wood heterogeneity and the reproducibility of ACU amplitude measurements were analysed in detail, identifying the main sources of variation. Future work is planned for the inspection of more complex glued timber objects.

Air-coupled ultrasonic assessment of wood veneer

Air-coupled ultrasound (ACU) provides a valuable tool to evaluate wood samples of small or moderate thickness (<30 mm) thereby avoiding direct contact or liquid coupling. Results of through-transmission ACU measurements on wood veneer samples and related products are reported with respect to a wide variety of quality aspects. Fluctuations in the averaged received signal levels appear to be correlated to the presence of thickness and density variations, flaws and grain damage, insufficient bonding on a substrate, etc. In addition the variability of the signal levels enables to distinguish between quarter and crown areas.

402 集束空気超音波によるスポット溶接ナゲットの非接触モニタリングの検討(材料・加工・構造物の信頼性を支える評価・モニタリング技術(1),ものづくりにおける基礎研究と先端技術の融合)

402 集束空気超音波によるスポット溶接ナゲットの非接触モニタリングの検討(材料・加工・構造物の信頼性を支える評価・モニタリング技術(1),ものづくりにおける基礎研究と先端技術の融合)

集束空気超音波によるスポット溶接部の非接触評価に関する検討(&lt;小特集&gt;M&amp;P2009機械材料・材料加工部門技術講演会)

集束空気超音波によるスポット溶接部の非接触評価に関する検討(&lt;小特集&gt;M&amp;P2009機械材料・材料加工部門技術講演会)