Transducer impulse response correction for a deconvolution derived ultrasound transit time spectrum

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Acoustics
• Signal Processing

Background:

• Ultrasound propagation in composite materials can cause phase interference due to sonic-ray transit time differences.
• Transit time spectrum, analogous to impulse response, is crucial for material characterization.
• Active-set deconvolution is a method for deriving the transit time spectrum.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate if incorporating the transducer impulse response enhances ultrasound transit time spectroscopy accuracy and precision.
• To test this hypothesis when only the digitally-coded excitation signal is available, not the direct input signal.

Main Methods:

• Generated ultrasound pulses using a 1 MHz sinusoid signal.
• Propagated pulses through a 5 step-wedge acrylic sample in water.
• Obtained transit time spectra via active-set deconvolution with and without transducer impulse response data.

Main Results:

• Incorporating the transducer impulse response significantly reduced the noise-to-signal ratio by a factor of 12.
• This demonstrated a quantitative improvement in signal quality.

Conclusions:

• The transducer impulse response can increase both accuracy and precision in ultrasound transit time spectroscopy.
• This approach offers potential for more reliable analysis of complex composite materials.