Method and apparatus for three-dimensional visualization and analysis for automatic non-destructive examination of a solid rotor using ultrasonic phased array

An apparatus comprising:

• means for generating a three dimensional visualization of a solid rotor based on a plurality of two dimensional ultrasound scans of the solid rotor comprising:
• means for associating each of a plurality of sample points of the plurality of two dimensional ultrasound scans with a corresponding 3D image point of a blank regular 3D grid;
• means for determining a kernel function for each of the plurality of sample points defining a size and shape of a kernel located at the corresponding image point;
• means for assigning a weight to each kernel;
• and
• means for determining a value for each image point of a plurality of image points on the regular 3D grid based on kernels overlapping that image point.

A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with computer executable instructions defining steps comprising:

• generating a three dimensional visualization of a solid rotor based on a plurality of two dimensional ultrasound scans of the solid rotor by:
• associating each of a plurality of sample points of the plurality of two dimensional ultrasound scans with a corresponding 3D image point of a blank regular 3D grid;
• determining a kernel function for each of the plurality of sample points defining a size and shape of a kernel located at the corresponding image point;
• assigning a weight to each kernel;
• and
• for each of a plurality of image points on the regular 3D grid, determining a value for that image point based on kernels overlapping that image point.