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Fundamentals of PAUT - 16-18

This document discusses ultrasonic phased arrays, including how they can apply time delays and apodization to focus and steer beams. It describes linear arrays, which can steer beams in one plane, and 2D arrays, which can steer beams more generally. The document provides examples of how arrays are used for non-destructive evaluation applications.

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Kevin Huang
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74 views3 pages

Fundamentals of PAUT - 16-18

This document discusses ultrasonic phased arrays, including how they can apply time delays and apodization to focus and steer beams. It describes linear arrays, which can steer beams in one plane, and 2D arrays, which can steer beams more generally. The document provides examples of how arrays are used for non-destructive evaluation applications.

Uploaded by

Kevin Huang
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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4 1 Introduction

Fig. 1.4   a Applying variable


time delays and a summation
on reception for receiving a
wave arriving at angle to the
array, and b applying variable
time delays and a summation
on reception for receiving a
curved wave front arriving at
the array

succession, a series of electrical pulses will be generated as shown. If relative time


delays, ∆ti , are applied to these received signals so that all of the signals occur at the
same time, then they can be summed to generate a single, large output signal. Note
that this summed signal is similar to what would be measured by a single element
transducer whose face was at normal incidence to the incoming wave so that the
entire surface of the transducer was excited simultaneously by the incident wave.
Thus, this reception delay law effectively acts much the same as a single element
receiving transducer oriented to face the incoming wave. Similarly, in Fig. 1.4b,
where the incident wave front is curved, relative time delays can be applied on
reception to align all the signals from the elements so they also can be summed.
This delay law is then analogous to what would happen with a focused single ele-
ment transducer on reception.
Because an ultrasonic phased array can transmit/receive with each element of
the array independently of the other elements, it also is possible to apply individual
amplitude weights, Ci , to the elements on either sound generation and reception (or
both) (see Fig. 1.5). The ensemble of such amplitude weights is called an apodiza-
tion law. In Chap. 3, we will describe the most common apodization laws that are
used to tailor the important acoustic radiation characteristics of a phased array.
The ability to use general delay laws and apodization laws on generation and
reception makes an ultrasonic phased array a very versatile and effective device
for conducting ultrasonic tests. It is important that engineers and scientists who use
1.2 Linear and 2-D Arrays 5

Fig. 1.5   An ultrasonic


phased array where amplitude
weights are applied to the
driving pulses, corresponding
to an apodization law applied
to the sending elements

this ultrasonic phased array technology understand the basic principles that govern
the behavior of phased arrays and the important parameters that control their per-
formance. It is also important to know how the characteristics of ultrasonic phased
array systems can be exploited to help overcome the indirect nature of measured
ultrasonic responses and better determine the properties of the object being exam-
ined, as discussed previously.
This book will describe in detail the fundamentals of ultrasonic phased array sys-
tems, using a combination of models and measurements to characterize the behavior
of the arrays that are typically used in NDE inspections of materials and struc-
tures. Two references to those fundamental concepts we will mention often are the
books listed as [1, 2] in the References at the end of this Chapter. Throughout this
book those two references will be listed simply as [Schmerr] and [Schmerr-Song],
respectively. Since our focus is on the use of phased arrays in NDE settings the
behavior of ultrasonic arrays when interacting with biological systems and medical
applications of arrays will not be discussed here but the reader can find a number
of other very good sources for those important topics [3, 4, 5]. Also, see [6] for an
overview of ultrasonic NDE applications.

1.2 Linear and 2-D Arrays

The shape of the piezoelectric elements in an array can be quite general but rectan-
gular elements are often used in practice because they are cost effective to manu-
facture. Figure 1.6 shows a set of identical rectangular elements where the length of
each element in the x-direction, lx , is much smaller than its length in the y-direction,
l y . This configuration is called a linear array. The gap length, g x, between elements
in the x-direction is normally the same for all pairs of elements in such an array. This
gap length is also called the kerf of the array. Another important parameter is the
element-to-element spacing, sx , as shown in Fig. 1.6. This parameter is called the
pitch of the array. Obviously, from the geometry the pitch is sx = lx + g x . Because
there are multiple elements in only one dimension in a linear array, time delay laws
6 1 Introduction

Fig. 1.6   The elements of a


linear array

Fig. 1.7   An array-based


angle beam shear wave
inspection setup

applied to the elements of a linear array can only steer the beam in the x-z plane
and generate cylindrical focusing along lines parallel the y-axis that pass through
various points in the x-z plane. Even with this restriction a linear array can be a very
effective tool for conducting NDE inspections.
One common application of such linear arrays is to place the array on a low
speed wedge in contact with an adjacent solid, as shown in Fig. 1.7, to generate an
array-based angle beam vertical-shear (SV) wave inspection setup, where phasing
of the array allows the shear wave to be steered and focused at various angles, θ, in
the solid.
Figure  1.8 shows a two-dimensional array of small, identical rectangular ele-
ments of lengths lx and l y , respectively, in the x- and y-directions and where there
are uniform gap lengths g x and g y between elements in each of the x- and y-
directions so that the pitches in each of these directions are given by sx = lx + g x ,
s y = l y + g y . Since time delays that vary in both the x- and y-directions can be ap-
plied to the elements of a two-dimensional array, it is possible to steer and focus the
beam of a 2-D array in a very general manner.
Other array configurations (annular arrays, segmented circular arrays, etc.) can
also be considered but the linear and two-dimensional rectangular arrays shown in
Figs. 1.6 and 1.8 are the types most commonly used in NDE tests so they will be the
types of arrays we will consider in this book.

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