Fast time reversal with multiple signal classfication for ultrasonic array imaging

Abstract

In this paper, the fast ultrasonic array imaging based on time reversal with multiple signal classification (TR-MUSIC) is presented and introduced into the area of ultrasonic Non-destructive evaluation (NDE) for imaging defects in solids. TR-MUSIC is based on the full matrix capture data, obtained by firing each element of an ultrasonic array independently, and collecting the data with all elements. Due to the limited calculation speed of current computers, a large matrix of data can result in long post-processing time, which is not suit for the scenarios when real-time imaging is needed. The fast TR-MUSIC imaging proposed in this paper is achieved via selecting a number of array elements instead of using all of them for emitting and receiving ultrasonic signals. Its performance is experimentally demonstrated in terms of post-processing time and quality of ultrasonic image. The experimental results in solids with different noise levels show that the proposed method can reduce the post-processing time when the quality of ultrasonic image holds.