Ultrasonic tomography systems for nondestructive testing

摘要

A system including a segmented transducer probe is provided. The segmented transducer probe includes a plurality of transducer segments adapted to transmit ultrasonic excitation signals into a test specimen and to receive echo signals resulting from the interaction of the ultrasonic excitation signals and the test specimen. The system also includes a processing system adapted to receive data from the segmented transducer probe that corresponds to the received echo signals and to utilize tomographic reconstruction methods to reconstruct an image corresponding to at least one volumetric slice of the test specimen.

主权项

1. A system, comprising:
a segmented transducer probe comprising a plurality of transducer segments arranged in a plurality of opposite pairs of transducer segments, wherein each opposite pair of transducer segments of the plurality of opposite pairs of transducer segments comprises a first transducer segment and a second transducer segment, the first transducer segment of each opposite pair is disposed on an opposite side of the segmented transducer probe than the second transducer segment of the respective opposite pair, each transducer segment of the plurality of transducer segments is configured to transmit ultrasonic excitation signals into a surface of a test specimen and to receive echo signals resulting from an interaction of the ultrasonic excitation signals and the test specimen, and the plurality of transducer segments is disposed in a plane; and a processing system configured to control the segmented transducer probe to sequentially activate the plurality of opposite pairs of transducer segments, to receive data from the segmented transducer probe that corresponds to the received echo signals from the plurality of opposite pairs of transducer segments, and to utilize a tomographic reconstruction method to reconstruct an image corresponding to at least one volumetric slice of the test specimen; wherein sequential activation of the plurality of opposite pairs of transducer segments comprises:
activating a first opposite pair of the plurality of opposite pairs of transducer segments to transmit the ultrasonic excitation signals into the test specimen and to receive the echo signals from the test specimen via the first transducer segment and the second transducer segment of the first opposite pair;deactivating the first opposite pair of the plurality of opposite pairs of transducer segments to stop transmission of the ultrasonic excitation signals and to stop reception of the echo signals via the first transducer segment and the second transducer segment of the first opposite pair; andactivating a second opposite pair of the plurality of opposite pairs of transducer segments to transmit the ultrasonic excitation signals into the test specimen and to receive the echo signals from the test specimen via the first transducer segment and the second transducer segment of the second opposite pair.