Ultrasonic NDE system: the hardware concept (original) (raw)

Electronics for Ultrasonic Imaging System

Elektronika ir Elektrotechnika, 2014

Design of ultrasonic imaging system is presented. System has a modular structure with main acquisition and front end electronics separated in order to have minimal path for host PC connectivity and shortest path to ultrasonic transducer. Such acquisition modules placement allows reducing the induced EMI and increasing the flexibility of the system. Positioning module is also separate and allows various scanning equipment configurations. Evaluation of excitation and reception electronics parameters is presented. Essential measurement procedures outlined. Signal digitization parameters (sampling frequency, clock jitter and quantisation) were chosen to balance time of flight estimation random errors versus interpolation bias errors.

Self-calibration of ultrasonic transducers inan intelligent data acquisition system

Second IEEE International Workshop on Intelligent Data Acquisition and Advanced Computing Systems: Technology and Applications, 2003. Proceedings, 2003

The rapid growth. of powerful single-chip microcomputers for monitoring and data acquisition applications permits nowadays the design of advanced measuring systems. The work reported here is presenting an advanced on-line monitoring configuration in order to improve the performance and extend the lifetime of ultrasonic transducers by applying an automated testing and calibration technique. The operation of this instrumentation system is based on the fast measurement of frequency and amplitude, performed by the proposed configuration. The combination of this information with the time offlight of each pulse-train is then used to derive practically all characteristics of ultrasonic transducers. Due to its low cost and small size, the system can be used either for characterization and classification of transducers, or as a selftesting and automated calibration section within any high performance ultrasonic system.

Digital Ultrasonic Sensing Device with Programmable Frequency: Development and Analysis

Advances in Engineering and Technology: An International Journal, 2021

Ultrasonic wave is widely used in Structure Health Monitoring (SHM) systems. A piezoelectric transducer (PZT) is one of the most widely used sensors to acquire the structure's ultrasonic wave. As today's world is digital, it is necessary to digitize the traditional analog PZT sensing system. This paper describes the development and analysis of a digital ultrasonic sensing device (DUSD) for PZT sensors. We removed the complexities of the analog circuit by interfacing the microcontroller directly with the charge amplifier circuit. The microcontroller used in this research is a 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4 with in-built FPU (Floating Point Unit) and DSP (Digital signal processing) instructions. These features make it possible to compute complex signal processing algorithms and methods in the controller itself. The developed sensing device can communicate with the user and other devices using Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART). The user can select cut-off frequencies of ...

Hardware Developments of an Ultrasonic Tomography Measurement System

2011

This research provides new technique in ultrasonic tomography by using ultrasonic transceivers instead of using separate transmitter-receiver pair. The numbers of sensors or transducers used to acquire data plays an important role to generate high resolution tomography images. The configuration of these sensors is a crucial factor in the efficiency of data acquisition. Instead of using common separated transmitter-receiver, an alternative approach has been taken to use dual functionality ultrasonic transceiver. A prototype design of sensor's jig that will hold 16 transceivers of 14.1mm has been design. Transmission-mode approach with fan beam technique has been used for sensing the flow of gas, liquid and solid. This paper also explains the circuitry designs for the Ultrasonic Tomography System.

Development, characterisation and applications of ultrasonic transducers for NDT

Insight-Non-Destructive Testing and Condition …

The variety available in ultrasonic transducers is so large that it needs more than one classification scheme to cover the entire range. The transducer manufacturer may claim that a special transducer is available for almost every application. At the same time, the large variety boggles the ...

A Guide to Ultrasonic Sensor Set Up and Testing Instructions, Limitations, and Sample Applications Table of Contents

This paper will discuss the implementations and limitations of an ultrasonic sensor. The primary goal of this sensor will be to monitor user presence by measuring the distance of an object from the sensor. Within this, the ultrasonic sensor will send a serial signal through a driver/receiver to a computer to enhance information density. This particular methodology for ultrasonic sensors will be investigated in different applications. This paper will explore primary communications between the PC and the sensor, the restrictions that ultrasonic sensors face when measuring distance, and the most commonly used applications for this particular scheme.

Ultrasonic data acquisition: sampling frequency versus bandwidth

Digital ultrasonic systems offer variety of advantages over conventional systems. Signal conversion into digital for allows for easy and flexible signal processing organisation. Choice of sampling frequency usually is the first question arising during such systems design. When bandwidth of the system is already known, sampling frequency can be easily determined using Nyquist sampling criteria. But usually it is desired to have lower sampling rate than necessary. Sampling rate reduction allows for computation time increase and computer memory requirement decrement. It must be noted that in such case sufficient filtering has to be applied for circular convolution results to be taken on account. Despite A/D conversion sampling rate can be chosen slightly lower than required limit, care must be taken for possible artifacts. Here, we have proven, that -6dB /-3dB bandwidth calculation is not enough for optimal choice of sampling frequency. The signal frequency characteristics have to be m...

Front–End Design Of An Ultrasonic Tomography Measurement System

Jurnal Teknologi, 2011

Kertas kerja ini menerangkan tentang perancangan bahagian permulaan di dalam sistem tomografi ultrasonik. Dalam kertas kerja ini, teknik perlaksanaan tomografi ultrasonik secara luaran iaitu tidak menggangu aliran dalaman paip diaplikasikan menggunakan 16 sensor gabungan pemancar dan penerima untuk mengesan fasa–fasa aliran di dalam paip. Fasa tersebut termasuk pepejal,gas dan cecair. Kebaikan menggunakan pengesan jenis gabungan berbanding pengesan berasingan dibincangkan di dalam kertas kerja ini. Cara penyusunan pengesan, teknik pengukuran dan penyediaan perkakasan juga dibincangkan. Butir–butir rekaan litar termasuk litar pemancar, penerima, dan litar pengesan puncak juga disertakan. Kertas kerja ini boleh membantu untuk pembinaan sistem tomografi ultrasonik yang lebih jauh. Kata kunci: Tomografi ultrasonic; aliran pelbagai fasa; ultrasonik This paper explains the front–end system design of an ultrasonic tomography. In this paper, the ultrasonic tomography techniques implements a...

The Influence of Front-End Hardware on Digital Ultrasonic Imaging

IEEE Transactions on Sonics and Ultrasonics

Abstruct-Digital ultrasonic imaging systems are critically dependent upon transducers and "front-end'' electronics, for the generation of insonifying pulses, the detection of reflected echoes, and the conversion of data to digital form. The impulse response, frequency and spatial characteristics of the transducer, and the electrical characteristics o f the analog-tedigital interface are important factors in image reconstruction and enhancement, on a par with signal processing techniques. Selected theoretical and practical aspects of front-end hardware, and their influence o n image quality arc reviewcd. The theoretical basis of transducer design is briefly rcviewcd, including methods for prediction of transducer performance, acoustic field distribution, and element configuration: the limitations of each method are carefully discussed. Next, the design of the interface electronics is examined, demonstrating the requirements for sampling rate, signal-to-noise ratio, dynamic range, impedance matching, etc. The design and construction of a phased array transducer system is used to illustrate the practical aspects o f transducer and interface design, including the trade-offs involved. Finally, future trends in ultrasonic transducer design are discussed, including new piezoelcctric materials (e.g., rare earth piezoceramics and piezoelectric polymers and composites), as well as the impact of new integrated circuit techniques. I. INT1IOI)UCTION U LTRASONIC imaging for medical and nondestructive testing purposes has made significant progress since its very beginnings over thirty years ago [ 1 1. Much of the recent increase in the use of diagnostic ultrasonic imaging can be traced to improvements in image quality. The new digital imaging systems coming into use hold the promise of further enhancing image quality. In addition, new image analysis techniques are a key element in the "ultimate goal" of medical ultrasonic imaging, which is tissue characterization. The flexibility inherent in digital imaging systems enables the designer to use a wide range of algorithms to reconstruct, enhance, and analyze ultrasonic images. However, the usefulness of these algorithms is limited by the quality of the original data. Critical to any digital ultrasonic imaging system is the "front-end": the transducer and associated electronics which link the digital system to the medium under examination. Although imaging capabilities can be augmented by digital processing techniques, the front-end hardware often sets the system performance limits. In particular, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), bandwidth, and dynamic range of the raw digital data all have an influence on the utility of certain image processing approaches.

MODELING AND SIMULATION OF ULTRASONIC SYSTEM

TJPRC, 2014

The Numerical simulations- i.e. the computers solved the problems by simulating theoretical models- is part of new technology has emerged long side pure theory and experiment during the last few decades. Computer simulations can bridge the gap between analysis and experiment. This paper provides modeling and simulation of ultrasonic system for material characterization. The system includes the transmitter, transmitting transducer, receiver, receiving transducer, material for characterization. This paper also provides the analogy between transducer and lossy transmission line. The use of PSPICE provides facility for simulation of complex set of excitation electronics, the ultrasonic transducer, the material under investigation, and the receiving electronics. Initially the analogy between transducer and lossy transmission line is discussed. The properties for lossy transmission lines were calculated for 5MHz transducer. Thus the velocity and attenuation for different materials is obtained. The experiment was successfully done and satisfactory results were obtained.