Flowing fluid acoustic coupling

摘要

An apparatus examines the internal structure of an object disposed substantially in a medium such as air, which essentially totally reflects acoustic signals in the 1-200 MHz frequency range. The apparatus has an acoustic transducer that emits and receives acoustic signals in the 1-200 MHz frequency range and an acoustic coupler that acoustically couples the acoustic transducer to the object. The acoustic coupler is adapted to receive a fluid stream and emit a fluid stream that carries acoustic signals in the 1-200 MHz frequency range between the acoustic transducer and the object. In operation, the apparatus sprays a section of the object with a fluid stream such as water and examines the internal structure of the sprayed section using reflection mode acoustic microscopy, wherein the transducer of the apparatus pings the object by emitting an acoustic signal in the 1-200 MHz frequency range and the fluid stream carries the emitted acoustic signal to the sprayed section of the object and carries reflections of the emitted acoustic signal from the object to the transducer.