Novel intrumentation calculation methods to determine the phase-shift of ultrasound waves for non-destructive material characterization

Abstract

An efficient method for material characterization consists in emitting ultrasound waves in a medium, and processing both the emitted and received signals to determine the morphological characteristics of the medium under test, whether static or under low flow [J. Max, Traitement du signal et applications aux mesures physiques, 4th éd., Vol. 1, MASSON, 1985. J. Perdijon, Le Contrôle non destructif par ultrasons, Traité des nouvelles Technologies, série matériaux, (in French) HERMES. A. Ravasoo, and J. Janno, Nondestructive characterization of materials with variable properties, Acta Mechanica, 151 (2001), pp. 217–233. J. SAPRIEL, Techniques de l’Ingénieur (in French) Traité électronique, E1910.]. In this article we present an instrumentation calculation method to determine the phase-shift of ultrasound waves at 40 kHz using a data acquisition card limited to 200 kHz. We describe the experimental platform, then the theoretical development for results exploitation, and two applications using the system: a distance measurement in air medium, and a speed sound measurement in sea water/fresh water mixture.

Keywords:

• ultrasound
• data acquisition
• signal processing
• non-destructive control