3D ultrasonic imaging of surface-breaking cracks using a linear array

Abhishek Saini; Christopher J L Lane; Juan Tu; Honghui Xue; Zheng Fan

doi:10.1016/j.ultras.2022.106790

3D ultrasonic imaging of surface-breaking cracks using a linear array

Ultrasonics. 2022 Sep:125:106790. doi: 10.1016/j.ultras.2022.106790. Epub 2022 Jul 2.

Authors

Abhishek Saini¹, Christopher J L Lane², Juan Tu³, Honghui Xue³, Zheng Fan⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore.
² Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Center (ARTC), 3 Clean Tech Loop, CleanTech Two, Singapore 637143, Singapore; Olympus Corporation of Asia Pacific Limited, 438B Alexandra Road, Alexandra Technopark Blk B, Singapore 119968, Singapore.
³ Key Laboratory of Modern Acoustics (MOE), School of Physics, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructure, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
⁴ School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore. Electronic address: ZFAN@ntu.edu.sg.

PMID: 35835009
DOI: 10.1016/j.ultras.2022.106790

Abstract

Ultrasonic linear arrays have great potential to generate high-quality three-dimensional (3D) images by scanning the array. However, the generated images suffer from low resolution in the elevation plane, limiting the image quality for a reliable 3D Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) inspection. Although several ultrasonic imaging methods have been implemented to inspect different types of defects, there has been limited research to characterise surface-breaking cracks (SBCs) in 3D quantitatively. To improve the characterisation of surface-breaking cracks (SBCs), a 3D hybrid imaging method is proposed by combining the Half Skip Total Focusing Method (HSTFM) and the Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique (SAFT) using a linear array. This paper proposed the implementation of an array with a reduced element length for full matrix capture (FMC) data acquisition. In conjunction with the hybrid imaging method, a reduced element array enables the utilisation of the information from a broad ultrasonic beam in the elevation direction to achieve improved image resolution. The imaging capability is assessed via a point spread function (PSF) as well as numerical simulations. From the PSF measurements, the image resolution is shown to improve with the smaller element length of the array, which is attributable to the combination of wide beamwidth and hybrid imaging method. Thereafter, experimental validation was performed with arrays of different elevation lengths, where an excellent match with the numerical results was observed. Furthermore, the crack sizing was performed using a 6-dB-drop rule, which assisted in accurately predicting the shape and size of the SBCs and is shown to measure the depth of SBCs with greater confidence. It is shown that a reduced array elevation with the hybrid imaging method and sizing method yields improved image resolution contrary to conventional linear arrays. This approach can offer a significant improvement in manifesting complete comprehension of the spatial defect relationship, enabling NDT engineers to analyse the inspection results quantitatively in 3D for progressive reliability.

Keywords: 3D imaging; HSTFM; Industrial NDT; Linear array; Phased array resolution; SAFT.