System and method for providing simulated ultrasound porosity waveforms

A system for generating simulated ultrasound test results having a selected level of porosity for a particular material under test, comprising:

• an ultrasound test system configured to perform ultrasound testing on a set of coupons for the particular material under test, each of the coupons having a different level of porosity and/or thickness, to generate ultrasound test data for each coupon;
• and
• a processor configured to fit a distribution function to a back wall attenuation signal for each coupon in the set of the coupons and to store the fitted distribution function in a memory as an attenuation distribution function, the back wall attenuation signal generated from the ultrasound test data for each coupon, the processor configured to create, from the ultrasound test data, a library of echo patterns for each coupon of unique porosity and thickness in the set of coupons and to store the library of echo patterns in the memory;
• the processor configured to select a region of ultrasound test results of a coupon having a region of zero porosity for adding a predetermined amount of simulated porosity, the processor configured to calculate a main attenuation distribution function based on an interpolation of two of the stored attenuation distribution functions, one of the two stored attenuation distribution functions for a coupon in the set of coupons having a porosity less than the predetermined amount of simulated porosity and the other of the two stored attenuation distribution functions for a coupon in the set of coupons having a porosity greater than the predetermined amount of simulated porosity, the processor configured to assign a main attenuation value to one portion of the selected region based on the main attenuation distribution function and to assign attenuation values within a predetermined percentage of the main attenuation value to other portions of the selected region, the processor configured to modify ultrasound waveforms associated with the one portion of the selected region based on the main attenuation value and a selected one echo pattern of the library of echo patterns, the processor configured to modify ultrasound waveforms associated with the other portions of the selected region based on the attenuation values within a predetermined percentage of the main attenuation value and a selected one echo pattern of the library of echo patterns, the processor configured to store all of the modified ultrasound waveforms in the memory as simulated ultrasound waveforms for the selected level of porosity.

A method for generating a set of simulated ultrasound test results having predetermined levels of porosity for a particular material under test, comprising the steps of:

• selecting a region of ultrasound test results for a coupon among a set of coupons of a selected material, the selected region within a region of porosity below a predetermined minimum threshold, the selected region for adding a predetermined amount of simulated porosity, the region of the ultrasound test results comprising a plurality of ultrasound waveforms;
• for each of the predetermined levels of porosity:
• calculating a main attenuation distribution function based on an interpolation of two of a set of stored attenuation distribution functions for the set of coupons, one of the two stored attenuation distribution functions for a coupon in the set of coupons having a porosity less than a selected one of the predetermined levels of porosity and the other of the two stored attenuation distribution functions for a coupon in the set of coupons having a porosity greater than the selected one of the predetermined levels of porosity;
• assigning a main attenuation value to one portion of the selected region based on the main attenuation distribution function;
• modifying the ultrasound waveforms associated with the one portion of the selected region based on the main attenuation value and a selected one echo pattern of a library of echo patterns generated from ultrasound test data for the set of coupons;
• assigning attenuation values within the predetermined percentage of the main attenuation value to other portions of the selected region;
• and
• modifying the ultrasound waveforms associated with the other portions of the selected region based on the attenuation values within a predetermined percentage of the main attenuation value and a selected one echo pattern of the library of echo patterns;
• and
• storing all of the modified ultrasound waveforms in a computer memory as simulated ultrasound waveforms for the selected one of the predetermined levels of porosity.