Adaptive ultrasonic inspection for volumetric flaws

An ultrasonic inspection system for acoustic evaluation of a target using an array of electro-acoustic transducers, the system comprising:

• an analog front end comprising transmit and receive circuitry coupled to the array of electro-acoustic transducer elements;
• a processor circuit communicatively coupled with the analog front end;
• an
• a memory circuit comprising instructions that, when executed by the processor circuit, cause the system to:
• generate respective acoustic transmission events using different transmitting apertures, the apertures defined by corresponding zones along the array, the zones including multiple electro-acoustic transducer elements;
• in response to the respective acoustic transmission events, receive respective acoustic echo signals, using receiving ones of the electro-acoustic transducer elements, to form a group of received acoustic echo signals, the group indexed by transmit-receive pairs including a respective transmit zone and a respective one of the receiving elements;
• coherently sum representations of the respective received acoustic echo signals, the representations corresponding to the respective transmit-receive pairs, the coherently summing including applying determined nominal element delay factors to the respective representations to approximate a beam normal to a nominal shape of a surface of a structure being inspected, and applying respective delay factor corrections to compensate for variation from the nominal shape or a nominal alignment of the surface of the structure with respect to the array of electro-acoustic transducers;
• and
• generate a pixel or voxel value corresponding to a specified spatial location within the structure being inspected using the coherently summed representations.

An ultrasonic inspection system for acoustic evaluation of a target using an array of electro-acoustic transducers, comprising:

• a means for generating respective acoustic transmission events using different transmitting apertures, the apertures defined by corresponding zones along the array, the zones including multiple electro-acoustic transducer elements;
• in response to the respective acoustic transmission events, means for receiving respective acoustic echo signals, using receiving ones of the electro-acoustic transducer elements, to form a group of received acoustic echo signals, the group indexed by transmit-receive pairs including a respective transmit zone and a respective one of the receiving elements;
• a means for coherently summing representations of the respective received acoustic echo signals, the representations corresponding to the respective transmit-receive pairs, the coherently summing including applying determined nominal element delay factors to the respective representations to approximate a beam normal to a nominal shape of a surface of a structure being inspected, and applying respective delay factor corrections to compensate for variation from the nominal shape or a nominal alignment of the surface of the structure with respect to the array of electro-acoustic transducers;
• and
• a means for generating a pixel or voxel value corresponding to a specified spatial location within the structure being inspected using the coherently summed representations.