Described are an apparatus, computer program product, and associated methods for shaped waveform acoustic interrogation of substances and materials to determine one or more properties of the materials or substances. In some embodiments, a shaped waveform is formed by summing two or more different waveforms and an acoustic wave is generated according to the shaped waveform. The acoustic wave is transmitted by one or more transmitting transducers through the substance or material and received by one or more receiving transducers. The shaped waveform acoustic wave can have a duration or a period that is less than about 20 μs and can comprise predetermined frequency content. Characteristics of the shaped waveform acoustic wave, as received at the receiving transducer(s), including characteristics such as amplitude, frequency, time of flight, etc., can be associated with said one or more properties of the substance or material to provide for real-time monitoring of these properties.

A measurement system for measuring an inhomogeneity of a medium in a vessel includes: a first ultrasound emitter for sending a first ultrasound signal along a first path; a second ultrasound emitter for sending a second ultrasound signal along a second path different from the first path; a first ultrasound receiver for receiving the first ultrasound signal and measuring a first measurement parameter p1 of the received first ultrasound signal; a second ultrasound receiver for receiving the second ultrasound signal and measuring a second measurement parameter p2 of the received second ultrasound signal; and a control unit: receives the first measurement parameter p1 from the first ultrasound receiver, receives the second measurement parameter p2 from the second ultrasound receiver, and determines a ratio p1/p2 of the first measurement parameter p1 to the second measurement parameter p2.

According to an embodiment, a linear-scan ultrasonic inspection apparatus comprises: an ultrasonic array probe having ultrasonic elements aligned in a first direction; a delay-time calculator configured to calculate, referring to the surface shape of the test object, values of delay time of at least one of transmitting and receiving ultrasonic wave; an overlapping-region adjustor configured to set conditions for generating an image of an overlapping region; and an integrated-image generator configured to generate first image data of a region including the overlapping region. The overlapping-region adjustor is configured to set the conditions of the surface shape to be referred to the delay-time calculator in calculating the values of the delay time at either the first-probe setting position or the second-probe setting position as both of a first acquired shape obtained at the first-probe setting position and a second acquired shape obtained at the second-probe setting position.

A fluid sensor includes a housing and a thermal emitter in the housing to emit first thermal radiation into a detection volume of the housing at a first power level during a measurement interval and emit the first thermal radiation at a reduced first power level or not emit said first thermal radiation at all during an intermediate interval disposed outside of the measurement interval. The fluid sensor includes a measuring element in the detection volume to receive a radiation signal during the measurement interval. The fluid sensor includes a second thermal emitter in the housing to emit second thermal radiation at a second power level into the detection volume during the intermediate interval such that a thermal oscillation of thermal radiation in relation to an overall power level of the thermal radiation in the detection volume is at most 50% during the measurement interval and the intermediate interval.

Method and system are disclosed for characterizing and quantifying composite laminate structures. The method and system take a composite laminate of unknown ply stack composition and sequence and determine various information about the individual plies, such as ply stack, orientation, microstructure, and type. The method and system can distinguish between weave types that may exhibit similar planar stiffness behaviors, but would produce different failure mechanisms. Individual ply information may then be used to derive the laminate bulk properties from externally provided constitutive properties of the fiber and matrix, including extensional stiffness, bending-extension coupling stiffness, bending stiffness, and the like. The laminate bulk properties may then be used to generate a probabilistic failure envelope for the composite laminate. This provides the ability to perform non-destructive QA to ensure that individual lamina layup was accomplished according to specifications, and results may be used to identify a numerous laminate properties beyond purely structural.

An object of the invention is to provide an ultrasonic probe, an ultrasonic diagnostic device, and a manufacturing method of the ultrasonic probe, which are capable of reducing a product defect rate. An ultrasonic probe according to one embodiment includes a plurality of channels. Each of the plurality of channels includes a vibrator that outputs an ultrasonic wave, and a transmission circuit unit that changes an output in response to an input transmission signal and causes the vibrator to output the ultrasonic wave by driving the vibrator with the output. Here, the transmission circuit unit includes a stop signal holding circuit that holds a stop signal when the stop signal is input in advance, and selects whether to change the output in response to the transmission signal based on whether the stop signal is held.

A gas concentration measurement device comprises: a transmission circuit and a transmission oscillator for transmitting first ultrasonic waves in a concentration measurement space and transmitting second ultrasonic waves, which continue temporally from the first ultrasonic waves in the concentration measurement space; a reception oscillator and a reception circuit for receiving the ultrasonic waves that have propagated through the concentration measurement space; and a propagation time measurement unit for determining, on the basis of the times at which the first ultrasonic waves and the second ultrasonic waves were transmitted and the times at which the first ultrasonic waves and the second ultrasonic waves were received, the time in which ultrasonic waves propagate through the concentration measurement space. The second ultrasonic waves have an opposite phase with respect to that of the first ultrasonic waves, and the amplitude of the second ultrasonic waves is greater than that of the first ultrasonic waves.

Method and system are disclosed for characterizing and quantifying composite laminate structures. The method and system take a composite laminate of unknown ply stack composition and sequence and determine various information about the individual plies, such as ply stack, orientation, microstructure, and type. The method and system can distinguish between weave types that may exhibit similar planar stiffness behaviors, but would produce different failure mechanisms. Individual ply information may then be used to derive the laminate bulk properties from externally provided constitutive properties of the fiber and matrix, including extensional stiffness, bending-extension coupling stiffness, bending stiffness, and the like. The laminate bulk properties may then be used to generate a probabilistic failure envelope for the composite laminate. This provides the ability to perform non-destructive QA to ensure that individual lamina layup was accomplished according to specifications, and results may be used to identify a numerous laminate properties beyond purely structural.

A liquid level detector includes an ultrasonic sensor that emits an ultrasonic wave toward a liquid surface of liquid in a tank, a driving circuit unit that provides a driving signal to the ultrasonic sensor to emit the ultrasonic wave, a reception circuit unit that detects a reflected wave signal that corresponds to a reflected wave from a received signal received by the ultrasonic sensor, and an arithmetic control circuit unit that computes a level of the liquid surface with the reflected wave signal. The liquid level detector further includes a temperature detection unit that detects a temperature of the liquid and a driving condition computing circuit unit that instructs the driving circuit unit to increase a strength of the driving signal as the temperature of the liquid that is detected by the temperature detection unit decreases.

Techniques for compensating a TFM delay computation live (e.g., during acquisition) as a function of the measured thickness along the scan axis of a probe of an acoustic inspection system. At various scan positions, the acoustic inspection system can measure the thickness of the object under test. With the measured thickness, the acoustic inspection system can compute the delays used for the TFM computation to reflect the actual thickness at that particular scan position of the probe.