Open-ended Rectangular Waveguide Research Articles

Simulations and experimental study on imaging of thick defect in reusable thermal protective system using microwave NDT

Reusable thermal protective system (TPS) plays a key role for protecting space vehicles against the aerothermal heating. Thus the characterization of TPS performance becomes an important issue in their production, processing and applications. This paper demonstrates the detection and imaging of inner disbond and thick defect, which considerably compromises the performance of TPS materials within a two-layer TPS configuration (a special designed thick heat insulation tile backed by an aluminum alloy plate). The methodology employed for this investigation is a near-field microwave non-destructive testing (NDT), encompassing both simulations and experimental study. A 3D microwave model for the two-layer TPS structure containing the specified defects was established, and the magnitude and phase of the waveguide input impedance (i.e. S11 parameters) for each node within the X-band (8.2 ∼ 12.4 GHz) frequency range were obtained in the work. The simulation results reveal distinct featured amplitude and phase images of defects at various frequencies. Correlation processing algorithms were employed to make the images dimensionally reduction and featured enhancement. Finally, the results were verified by experimental measurements using an open-ended rectangular waveguide. Interestingly, the disbond defect between the two layers could be clearly identified by the phase information after correlation processing algorithms. The proposed method appears to offer a contactless, intuitive, and effective approach for characterizing defects within TPS materials.

A New Technique for Broadband Matching of Open-Ended Rectangular Waveguide Radiator.

The maximum reflection at an open end of a standard rectangular waveguide is about -10 dB in its operating frequency range. It is often used without matching. For critical applications, it is desirable to further reduce the reflection coefficient. In this paper, a new technique is presented for the broadband impedance matching of an open-ended rectangular waveguide. The proposed technique employs three thin capacitive matching elements placed at proper intervals via a low-loss dielectric material. The capacitance of, and distance between, the matching elements are optimized for broadband impedance matching using a simulation tool. Based on the proposed technique, two design examples are presented for the matching of a WR75 waveguide radiator. A reflection coefficient of less than -16 dB and -20 dB has been achieved over a ratio bandwidth of 2.13:1 and 1.62:1, respectively.

Adaptive segmentation-based evaluation of material properties of dielectric sheets using microwave NDE

ABSTRACT Composite materials/structures are rapidly advancing, offering improved product efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and superior specific properties. These materials find increasing applications in corrosion resistance and load-carrying structures across industries such as aerospace, wind turbines, transportation, and medical equipment. Therefore, ensuring reliable non-destructive evaluation of composites is crucial to address safety concerns and minimise maintenance expenses. The microwave non-destructive evaluation (NDE) method is particularly well-suited for characterising the material properties of composites. In our study, we utilise a large flange open-ended rectangular waveguide (OERW) probe, measuring 152 mm x 152 mm, to assess the complex reflection coefficient of dielectric materials. This measurement enables the extraction of essential material parameters using a forward electromagnetic model combined with an optimised method. To enhance accuracy, we introduce an iterative conjugate gradient descent (CGD) optimiser with adaptive segmentation. This approach effectively avoids local minima and reduces disparities in integrand values, resulting in precise measurements of material properties. Our proposed method provides estimations of the dielectric constant within a range of 1 to 10 and accurately determines sample thickness with a controlled limit of 3% error across all samples. Furthermore, we observe that as the loss-factor value decreases, the error in calculating the loss-factor of samples increases, which is supported by numerical analysis.

Millimeter-Wave Near-Field Evaluations of Polylactic Acid (PLA) Filament Used in Polymer-Based Additive Manufacturing (AM)

ABSTRACT Additive manufacturing (AM) remains to be a rapidly growing industry with applications that are extended beyond metals and to other materials, such as polymers, ceramics, and concrete, to name a few. However, advancement in the development of inspection techniques, particularly in-line nondestructive testing (NDT) methods, lags significantly. Most of the research in developing such methods has focused on metal-based AM. This paper investigates the efficacy of three high-resolution near-field millimeter-wave probes for detecting small voids in the feedstock polymeric filaments used for AM. The electromagnetic (EM) design and optimization of these probes are discussed in this paper. The design of the probes is based on concentrating the interrogating electric field of an open-ended waveguide in a small region corresponding to the area of a thin dielectric slab insert. This results in achieving a higher spatial resolution than when using only the open-ended waveguide. Extending the dielectric slab to an optimum value out of the waveguide makes the electric field more concentrated and potentially further improves the spatial resolution. These modifications also reduce the detection sensitivity as a function of increasing standoff distance. However, the spatial resolution of these probes varies more rapidly as the standoff distance increases. Subsequently, the efficacy of these three probes was studied and compared using a comprehensive set of numerical EM simulations at V-band (50–75 GHz). Afterward, three such probes were fabricated, at V-band (50–75 GHz), and were used to measure the reflection responses of the stock Polylactic Acid (PLA) filaments with a very small hemispherical surface void. Root-Mean-Squared-Error (RMSE), between reference and defective filaments and over the simulated and measured frequency range, was calculated as a criterion to compare the detection capability of the three probes in the entire frequency band. The results showed that at V-band (50–75 GHz) the spatial resolution of the standard open-ended rectangular waveguide is deemed sufficient detecting small surface voids of the stock PLA filaments.

Millimeter Wave Thickness Evaluation of Thermal Barrier Coatings (TBCs) Using Open-Ended Waveguide Probes

ABSTRACT Nondestructive testing (NDT) of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) is a critical and ongoing topic of research and development. In particular, inspection techniques that determine the thickness of ceramic topcoat and thermally grown oxide (TGO) are of interest. This work investigates the utility of open-ended rectangular waveguide probes in the millimeter wave frequency range of 26.5–110 GHz for evaluation of topcoat and TGO thicknesses through a compressive set of electromagnetic (EM) simulations. In addition, these EM simulations are used to illustrate the influence of probe size and TBC substrate curvature on the complex reflection coefficient properties and the subsequent thickness estimation. The impact of volumetric porosity level on the same is also investigated. A standing-wave probe at V-band (50–75 GHz) is constructed and used to measure the topcoat thickness on three button-type TBC samples. This probe eliminates the need for using expensive and bulky vector network analyzers (VNA), which is quite desirous from a practical point-of-view. The experimental results indicate the capability of estimating the topcoat thickness to within ±15 μm (0.6 mils).

Design of a Ku-Band Monopulse Antenna with a Truncated Reflector and an Open-Ended Waveguide Feed

This paper presents a design for a monopulse reflector antenna with asymmetric beamwidths for radar applications at the Ku band. The proposed design features a rectangular waveguide monopulse feed and a truncated parabolic reflector. An array of four open-ended rectangular waveguides were employed to realize a compact monopulse feed. The reflector is cut in the H plane of the feed producing a wider beam in the azimuth plane. This type of pattern is useful in applications such as projectile tracking and airport surveillance. The design parameters for optimum performances are chosen at all stages of the design. The design and analysis have been carried out using the commercial simulation tool CST Studio Suite 2022. The directivity of the sum, elevation difference and azimuth difference channels of the reflector antenna are 32.1, 28.1, and 26.4 dB at 14 GHz; 30.9, 29, and 27.3 dB at 15 GHz; 31.7, 29.6, and 27.6 dB at 16 GHz; 31.6, 29.9, and 27.8 dB at 17 GHz.

Assessment of Defects under Insulation Using K-Medoids Clustering Algorithm-Based Microwave Nondestructive Testing

Composite insulations, such as ceramics, are commonly utilized in the turbine system as a thermal coating barrier to protect the metal substrate against high temperatures and pressure. The presence of delamination in the composite insulations may cause turbine failure, leading to a catastrophic accident. Thus, regular non-destructive testing is required to detect and evaluate insulation defects. Among the non-destructive testing techniques, the microwave technique has emerged as a promising method for assessing defects in ceramic coatings. Although the method is promising, microwave non-destructive testing suffers from poor spatial imaging, making the defect assessment challenging. In this paper, a novel technique based on microwave non-destructive testing with a k-medoids clustering algorithm for delamination detection is proposed. The representative ceramic coating sample is scanned using a Q-band open-ended rectangular waveguide with 101 frequency points that operated between 33 to 50 GHz. The measured data is transformed from the frequency domain to the time domain using an inverse fast Fourier transform. The principal component analysis is then used to reduce the dimensionality of 101 time steps into only 3 dominant attributes. The attributes of each inspected location are classified as defect or defect-free using the k-medoids clustering algorithm for accurately detecting and sizing the defects in the ceramic insulation. The results reported in this paper highlight the superiority of the k-medoids clustering algorithm in delamination detection, with an accuracy rate of 95.4%. This is a significant step forward compared to earlier approaches for identifying ceramic defects.

Improved technique for radar absorbing coatings characterization with rectangular waveguide and numerical modeling

<span>For materials characterization, several methods have been developed. Most of them need a sample to be machined prior to testing process. Hence, they are destructive and cannot be used for in-situ radar absorbing coatings testing. This requires employing a suitable measurement technique to extract their electromagnetic properties quickly and accurately. In this paper, the swept frequency of probe reflection technique is proposed for broadband nondestructive radar absorbing coatings characterization using finite flange open-ended rectangular waveguide. The technique is based on the fact that the frequency of measurement is an independent variable of probe’s reflection coefficient by which its data set of selected frequency points can be directly measured in one step by varying the frequency. Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method was adopted to calculate probe reflection coefficients at different test conditions. Simple interpolation approximation was employed since they are frequency dependent parameters. Error analysis was numerically performed to evaluate the influences of both flange size and coated material thickness on the accuracy of the measurements, which are carried out on several samples of radar absorbing coatings at X-band to verify the proposed technique. Comparing with the existing methods, the proposed technique simplifies and speeds up measurement process and improves its repeatability and accuracy.</span>

Wideband Slot Array Antenna Fed by Open-Ended Rectangular Waveguide at W-Band

A wideband slot array antenna at W-band with a single-layer corporate feeding network is presented in this letter. The radiating slots are fed by open-ended rectangular waveguides to widen the impedance bandwidth instead of a commonly used coupling mechanism. A subarray of two elements placed in the H-plane is designed. In order to fit the feeding network into one layer, a compact hybrid feeding network is used, which is a combination of ridge waveguides and E-plane hollow waveguides. An 8-by-8-elements array antenna is simulated and fabricated with brass. Two metal layers are assembled by the bottom edge of the ridge waveguide to minimize the power leakage through the gap. The measured prototype achieves a relative impedance bandwidth of 35.7% with a reflection coefficient below −10 dB from 77.5 to 111.2 GHz. A peak gain of 26.8 dBi with variations within 2.5 dB is obtained. The measured radiation patterns agree with the simulations quite well, and the gain reduction remains below 1 dB in the operating range.

A Microwave Time Domain Reflectometry Technique Combining the Wavelet Decomposition Analysis and Artificial Neural Network for Detection of Defects in Dielectric Structures

The microwave nondestructive testing (MNDT) technique is an attractive candidate for defect detection in the dielectric structures as microwave signals can penetrate inside and interact with the insides of the dielectric material. In this research, a novel MNDT technique is presented for defect detection combining the time domain reflectometry (TDR) technique, the wavelet decomposition analysis (WDA) technique, and an artificial neural network (ANN), which has good generality and can be applied to various dielectric materials with different thicknesses. This method is based on scanning the dielectric material with an open-ended rectangular waveguide (OERW) operating from 18 to 26.5 GHz with 201 frequency points and analyzing its reflections using the proposed algorithm. The method was validated by simulation and experiments successfully. In the simulations, two typical kinds of dielectric materials were used to verify the generality and accuracy of this proposed method. The accuracies of these two dielectric materials were 96% and 90%, respectively. A 2-D image of detection can be constructed by performing repetition of the process with a certain step on the <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">xy</i> plane of a material, which is illustrated by simulations. Meanwhile, the sensitivity analysis was performed by studying the similarity quantified using the Pearson’s coefficient correlation. Eventually, some FR4 samples were machined to demonstrate the feasibility of this method. The acceptable accuracy is 86% of the experimental result.

A Modified Open-Ended Rectangular Waveguide Based Reflection Approach for Dielectric Constant Characterization of Low-Loss Slab Materials

A reflection approach utilizing an open-ended rectangular waveguide (ORW) for dielectric constant characterization of low-loss slab materials is presented. A calibration technique is proposed to reduce the effects of the higher order mode fields in dominant-mode analysis. In addition, the effects of undesired reflections caused by the finite-sized flange are also reduced in the extraction of the dielectric constant. Moreover, a small perturbation is introduced in the calculation of the reflection coefficient to eliminate the singularities as well. The dielectric constant of material under test (MUT) is extracted utilizing the measured reflection coefficient by assuming that the loss tangent of MUT is zero. Simulation results are presented to validate the calibration process. The selection of suitable airgap thickness and the effects of lossy MUT are also discussed. The measured dielectric constants of MUT made of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) are presented as well, which agrees excellently with the results achieved from the free-space method.

Temperature Dynamics in Rat Brains Exposed to Near-Field Waveguide Outputs at 2.8 GHz.

Biological effects in the microwave band of the radiofrequency (RF) spectrum are thermally mediated. For acute high-power microwave exposures, these effects will depend on transient time-temperature histories within the tissue. In this article, we summarize the transient temperature response of rats exposed to RF energy emanating from an open-ended rectangular waveguide. These exposures produced specific absorption rates of approximately 36 and 203 W/kg in the whole body and brain, respectively. We then use the experimentally measured thermal data to infer the baseline perfusion rate in the brain and modify a custom thermal modeling tool based upon these findings. Finally, we compare multi-physics simulations of rat brain temperature against empirical measurements in both live and euthanized subjects and find close agreement between model and experimentation. This research revealed that baseline brain perfusion rates in rat subjects could be larger than previously assumed in the RF thermal modeling literature, and plays a significant role in the transient thermal response to high-power microwave exposures. © 2021 Bioelectromagnetics Society.

Millimeter-wave electromagnetic monitoring for liquid metal droplet-on-demand printing

As new printing approaches emerge, in situ diagnostics to monitor the print quality in real-time become essential for long-term monitoring and feedback control. In this article, we present a millimeter-wave electromagnetic monitoring approach for liquid metal droplet-on-demand printing to support the high-speed and real-time evaluation of droplet ejection. An open-ended rectangular waveguide is placed perpendicular to a jetted droplet stream and operated at a continuous-wave frequency of 40 GHz. Liquid metal droplets with diameters as low as 1.2 mm are characterized, and droplet jetting events on the order of 500 μm are detected at ejection rates up to 80 Hz. The measured results demonstrate that trends at the macro-level (large-scale print variation and anomalies at the nozzle tip) as well as micro-level (droplet size, position, and dynamics) can be detected using this technique.

Maximal overlap discrete wavelet-packet transform aided microwave nondestructive testing

The capability of microwave signals to penetrate inside composites and interact with the inner structure makes them a very attractive candidate for composite inspection. Various techniques of microwave nondestructive testing (NDT) are used for detecting disbonds in composites. Despite their promising results, these techniques suffer from poor spatial resolution due to the given features that do not significantly distinguish between the defect and defect-free regions. In this paper, a hybrid signal processing based on a refinement feature extraction method is employed to enhance the imaging efficiency of the disbond detection in composite material. This technique is based on scanning the composite material with an open-ended rectangular waveguide operating from 18 to 26.5 GHz and analyzing its reflections using the proposed hybrid signal processing method. Maximal overlap discrete wavelet packet transform is employed to provide significant informative features of each frequency point. The Bi-directional long short-term memory (Bi-LSTM) network approach is used to distinguish the significant features and the outliers. The Bi-LSTM classifies each inspected location into a defect or defect-free location. The findings presented in this paper show the advantages of the refinement method-aided microwave technique in detecting disbonds down to 1 mm with an accuracy rate of 88.84%, a significant advantage over any current disbond inspection technique.

IFFT-Based Microwave Non-Destructive Testing for Delamination Detection and Thickness Estimation

Microwave Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) techniques for dielectric coatings are vital processes in many industrial applications due to their superior defect detection capabilities over traditional NDT methods. However, the limited bandwidth and post-processing complexities of these techniques cause them to fall short of accurately estimating the delamination thickness in such structures. In this paper, a novel low-complexity signal processing method is proposed to estimate the delamination thickness in metal-backed dielectric coatings using bandwidth-limited Open-Ended Rectangular Waveguide (OERW) probes. Here, Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) process is used to convert the measured complex reflection coefficients at the surface of the coating to the time domain. Next, the amplitude of a specific time step is used to accurately estimate the delamination thickness without extra time-consuming processing. Using a 3 mm-thick macor samples with machined defects, the proposed technique is validated by correctly estimating delamination thickness down to 0.4 mm using an OERW probe with 13.5 GHz bandwidth. Hence, this technique overcomes the challenge of the OERW's limited bandwidth, which highly affects the possibility of tracking shifting in the peak reflection in the time domain. Moreover, the proposed method does not add to the complexity of the NDT process, which makes it suitable for in-situ real time applications. Hence, following this approach would be of great importance to numerous industries, where accurate thickness estimation of minute delamination in coatings is essential to avoid system failure.

Scan Blindness Free Design of Wideband Wide-Scanning Open-Ended Waveguide Phased Array

A wideband wide-scanning open-ended rectangular waveguide phased array in a triangular lattice is presented. Dielectric or metamaterial wide-angle impedance matching superstrates have been widely used in phased arrays to improve the scanning performance. However these dielectric-containing covers cannot solve the problem of scan blindness caused by the surface waves, or even further aggravate the surface wave effect. The modulated surface structures, which consist of the impedance-gradient structures and the surface wave bandgap structures are designed to maximize the wideband wide-scanning performance of the array. The proposed array achieves 40% bandwidth (8–12 GHz), while covering a scanning range of ±65° in the E-plane (VSWR < 2.3) and H-plane (VSWR < 2). The practical working frequency band occupies the whole potential operating frequency band between the waveguide TE <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">10</sub> cutoff frequency and the onset frequency of the first grating lobe. An <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$11\times11$ </tex-math></inline-formula> prototype is fabricated and measured. Good agreement is achieved between the simulated and measured results.

Microwave Nondestructive Testing for Defect Detection in Composites Based on K-Means Clustering Algorithm

Composite such as Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) is increasingly used as insulation in many industrial applications such as the steel pipelines in the oil and gas industry. Due to ageing and cyclic operation, many hidden defects exist under insulation, such as corrosion and delamination. If these defects are not promptly detected and restored, the growth of defects causes a catastrophic loss. Therefore, an effective inspection technique using non-destructive testing (NDT) to detect the underneath defect is required. The ability of microwave signals to penetrate and interact with the inner structure within composites makes them a promising candidate for composite inspection. In the case of GFRP, the random patterns cause permittivity variations that influence the propagation of the microwave signals, which results in a blurred spatial image making the assessment of the material's state difficult. In this research, a novel microwave NDT technique is presented based on k-means unsupervised machine learning for defect detection in composites. At present, the defect evaluation using an unsupervised machine learning-based microwave NDT technique is not reported elsewhere. The unsupervised machine learning is employed to enhance the imaging efficiency and defect detection in GFRP. The technique is based on scanning the composite material with an open-ended rectangular waveguide operating from 18 to 26.5 GHz with 101 frequency points. The influence of the permittivity variations on the reflected coefficients due to the random patterns of GFRP is mitigated by measuring the mean of a set of the adjacent points at each operating frequency point using a small rectangular window. The measured data is converted to the time domain using a fast inverse Fourier transform (IFFT) to provide significant features and increase the signal resolution to 201-time steps. K-means algorithm is utilized to cluster the given features into the defect and defect-free regions in GFRP. The findings presented in this paper demonstrate the benefits of an unsupervised machine learning to detect a defect down to 1 mm, which is a considerable contribution over any existing defect inspection technique in composites.

Multilayer Structure Technique for Improving Determination of Electromagnetic Properties of Radar Absorbers Based on Two-Layer Method and Flanged Rectangular Waveguide Probe

This paper presents further development of utilization of two-layer method to perform nondestructive electromagnetic properties determination of planar radar absorbers using flanged open-ended rectangular waveguide probe. A multilayer structure of three layers was proposed to improve the measured results of these parameters obtained using two-layer method. These layers were arranged such that the test material is sandwiched between two known low loss materials to provide the needed two independent reflection coefficients necessary to extract them at different conditions of testing. The proposed structure was aimed to decrease the effect of direct backing of test material by metal plate, which influences measurement accuracy if two-layer method is used. The structure permits a suitable electric field interrogation in test material and decreases the influences of both radial and surface waves. FDTD method was adapted for modeling the problem geometry to calculate the reflection coefficients since a probe with finite flange size is used. Measurements were carried out using the proposed technique to determine complex permittivity and complex permeability of several radar absorbers over X-band applications of microwaves. In comparison with both single-layer and two-layer methods results, the measured results of these parameters agreed well with the published data. by companies and literatures.

Multilayer Structure Technique for Improving Determination of Electromagnetic Properties of Radar Absorbers Based on Two-Layer Method and Flanged Rectangular Waveguide Probe

This paper presents further development of utilization of two-layer method to perform nondestructive electromagnetic properties determination of planar radar absorbers using flanged open-ended rectangular waveguide probe. A multilayer structure of three layers was proposed to improve the measured results of these parameters obtained using two-layer method. These layers were arranged such that the test material is sandwiched between two known low loss materials to provide the needed two independent reflection coefficients necessary to extract them at different conditions of testing. The proposed structure was aimed to decrease the effect of direct backing of test material by metal plate, which influences measurement accuracy if two-layer method is used. The structure permits a suitable electric field interrogation in test material and decreases the influences of both radial and surface waves. FDTD method was adapted for modeling the problem geometry to calculate the reflection coefficients since a probe with finite flange size is used. Measurements were carried out using the proposed technique to determine complex permittivity and complex permeability of several radar absorbers over X-band applications of microwaves. In comparison with both single-layer and two-layer methods results, the measured results of these parameters agreed well with the published data. by companies and literatures.

Heatsink Antenna Array for Millimeter-Wave Applications

In this communication, a novel fin-shaped heatsink antenna array is designed and fabricated by 3-D printing and low-temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC) technologies. Its structure consists of 16 rectangular air cavities in the bottom base, which are used to form the open-ended rectangular waveguide antennas. Combined with the waveguide and metallic fins, a step-profiled horn is formed as the antenna element, which further enhances the radiation performance. This heatsink antenna array is soldered on an LTCC substrate and the feeding network is realized by the substrate integrated waveguides (SIWs) with numerous metallic vias. These metallic vias inherently provide an effective path for transferring the heat from chips to the heatsink. The simulated performance of this heatsink antenna array is in good agreement with the measured one. The measured broadside gain is 18.1 dBi at 60 GHz, and the 10 dB relative impedance bandwidth is 11.7%.