1.

4 Book Outline 13

Fig. 1.14   Information

matrices showing the data
available with combinations
of sending and receiving
elements for a full matrix
capture (all element pairs), b
pulse-echo responses (same
sending/receiving pairs), and
c a single sending element
used with all the receivers

This measured voltage is then analogous to what would be measured by a single ele-
ment transducer of a size comparable to the whole array, but where the array trans-
ducer beam can be tailored by the steering, focusing and apodization terms. Com-
mercial phased array systems typically provide this summed signal as an output, as
well as standard images formed with the array signals such as B-scans, S-scans, etc.
However, with full matrix capture capabilities, a phased array system allows the
user to manipulate the array data and form images in ways that are not possible with
the output signal of Eq. (1.10).

1.4 Book Outline

This book is divided into essentially three sections. The first section, covering
Chaps. 2–5, idealizes arrays as 1-D elements radiating waves in two dimensions.
This assumption allows us to discuss many modeling issues and important concepts
such as beam steering, focusing, and the existence of grating lobes in a very simple
framework. This section also provides an ideal source of materials for introducing
students to phased arrays and describes some MATLAB® functions and scripts that
can be used to simulate the behavior of a phased array.
The second section of the book, in Chaps. 6–11, develops a complete model
of a phased array ultrasonic measurement system. Phased array beam models are
developed in detail in Chaps. 6 and 7 and the time delay laws that can be used
to control the behavior of an array are obtained in Chap. 8. A complete linear
systems model of an ultrasonic phased array measurement system is developed
in Chap. 9 where the system response is divided into a system function that de-
scribes the electrical and electro-mechanical parts of the system associated with
a sending and receiving pair of elements, and an acoustic/elastic transfer func-
tion that describes all the acoustic and elastic wave propagation and scattering
fields present between those sending and receiving elements, as discussed earlier
in this Chapter. Chapter 10 shows how the system function for each element can
14 1 Introduction

be measured experimentally in a calibration setup while Chap. 11 uses reciproc-

ity relations to obtain an expression for the acoustic/elastic transfer function for a
flaw measurement system in terms of the incident and scattered waves at the flaw
surface in a form similar to that originally developed by Auld [7]. The combina-
tion of the system function and the acoustic/elastic transfer function then gives an
explicit expression for the measured voltage from each pair of sending/receiving
elements. This expression is called an ultrasonic measurement model. It is also
shown in Chap. 11 how for small flaws this general measurement model can be
reduced to a Thompson-Gray type of form [8] where the flaw response is obtained
as an explicit and separate part of the overall expression for the received voltage.
Examples are given of how this reduced measurement model can be used to predict
the measured response of some simple reflectors.
Since ultrasonic phased array flaw measurement systems are commonly used to
generate images of the flaws present, the third section of the book, Chaps. 12 and 13,
are devoted to the fundamentals of imaging. In Chap. 12, two commonly used ad-
hoc imaging methods, the Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique (SAFT) and the
Total Focusing Method (TFM) are first discussed. Then it is shown how, for simple
2-D problems, Thompson-Gray measurement models can be inverted to produce an
explicit image of the surface geometry and reflectivity of a flaw in a form called
an imaging measurement model. These imaging measurement models are shown
to be closely related to the Physical Optics Far Field Inverse Scattering (POFFIS)
method and also to SAFT and TFM imaging. The nature of the images generated
with imaging measurement models are also described in Chap. 12 through a number
of “exact” simulations. In Chap. 13 imaging measurement models are more fully
developed for both large and small flaws in 3-D, leading to a unified framework
of imaging that generalizes SAFT, TFM, and POFFIS imaging and rationally de-
scribes the terms inherently present in the imaging process. The implications that
these imaging measurement models have on quantitative flaw characterization are
also discussed.
Finally, in Chap. 14, some of the explicit assumptions used in the development of
the array beam models used in the previous Chapters are re-examined. Specifically,
as discussed previously in Sect. 1.3, the assumption that an array element acts as a
velocity source in a surrounding rigid baffle is relaxed and a more general model is
developed where the baffle is allowed to have finite acoustic impedance.
There are also three Appendices. Appendices A and B provide detailed deriva-
tions of several factors that appear in the development of imaging measurement
models. Appendix C gives complete Code Listings for the MATLAB® functions
and scripts described in the book.
References [1] and [2] will be referred to often in this book and are listed as
[Schmerr] and [Schmerr-Song], respectively, in this and later Chapters.
References 15

References

1. L.W. Schmerr, Fundamentals of Ultrasonic Nondestructive Evaluation—A Modeling Approach

(Plenum Press, New York, 1998)
2. L.W. Schmerr, S.-J. Song, Ultrasonic Nondestructive Evaluation Systems—Models and Mea-
surements (Springer, New York, 2007)
3. T.L. Szabo,, Diagnostic Ultrasound: Inside Out (Academic Press, New York, 2004)
4. K.K. Shung, Diagnostic Ultrasound: Imaging and Blood Flow Measurements (CRC Press,
Boca Raton, 2006)
5. P.N.T. Wells, Ultrasonic imaging of the human body. Rep. Prog. Phys. 62, 671–722 (1999)
6. N. Dube, Introduction to Phased Array Technology Applications. R/D Tech. (2004). (available
from www.olympus-ims.com Advanced NDT Series Books)
7. B.A. Auld, General electromechanical reciprocity relations applied to the calculation of elastic
wave scattering coefficients. Wave Motion. 1, 3–10 (1979)
8. R.B. Thompson, T. A. Gray, A model relating ultrasonic scattering measurements through
liquid-solid interfaces to unbounded medium scattering amplitudes. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 74,
140–146 (1983)