High-speed imaging of defects in thin plate by scanning elastic wave source technique using an airborne ultrasound phased array

Abstract

Abstract We proposed high-speed visualization of defects by guided waves using an airborne ultrasound phased array (AUPA). The AUPA can move the focal point of the acoustic wave at high-speed by electronic control. By applying this sound source to the elastic wave source scanning technique, the measurement time can be significantly reduced. This report demonstrated the proposed method to visualize thin metal plate defects. The results confirmed that the defect can be visualized by the amplitude peak distribution of the propagating guided waves. In addition, it was confirmed that applying background subtraction processing to the imaging results allows the defects to be more clearly visualized.