The invention relates to an acoustic sensor system (1) for detecting the wall thickness (WT1, WT2) of a material layer (2) of a pipeline wall (3), having at least one transmitter unit (4), which is configured to emit ultrasound in the direction of a material layer (2) and detect an ultrasound echo reflected by the material layer (2), and a control unit (5), which is connected to the at least one transmitter unit (4) for signaling purposes and is configured to detect the wall thickness (WT1, WT2) of the material layer (2) using the ultrasound echo. The invention additionally relates to an in-line inspection device comprising the sensor system (1), to a method for detecting the wall thickness (WT1, WT2) of a material layer (2) of a pipeline wall (3), to a computer program, to a data carrier signal, and to a data storage unit.

An apparatus comprising an array of polymer-based capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers positioned on a substrate. The substrate may be at least substantially transparent to ionizing radiation, be flexible, and/or have walls positioned thereon to protect the transducers.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) includes a flexible holder retaining a plurality of probes. The flexible holder is deformable to arrange the probes around a portion of a structure, allowing the probes to scan the portion of the structure. At least one of the plurality of probes is an ultrasonic test (UT) probe to scan the portion of the structure with ultrasonic waves.

A method of forming parts uses a forming tool having a forming surface, and an ultrasonic transducer array on the forming surface.

In some examples, a distributed acoustic detector system may include a frame structure and multiple acoustic detectors. The frame structure may be configured to be retained in a laser-based ophthalmo-logical surgical system aligned to an eye of a patient during therapeutic treatment of the eye of the patient with the laser-based ophthalmological surgical system. The acoustic detectors may be coupled to the frame structure and may be spaced apart from each other and electrically separated from each other.

An ultrasound beamformer architecture performs the task of signal beamforming using a matrix of analog random access memory cells to capture, store and process instantaneous samples of analog signals from ultrasound array elements and this architecture provides significant reduction in power consumption and the size of the diagnostic ultrasound imaging system such that the hardware build upon this ultrasound beamformer architecture can be placed in one or few application specific integrated chips (ASIC) positioned next to the ultrasound array and the whole diagnostic ultrasound imaging system could fit in the handle of the ultrasonic probe while preserving most of the functionality of a cart-based system. The ultrasound beamformer architecture manipulate analog samples in the memory in the same fashion as digital memory operates that can be described as an analog store—digital read (ASDR) beamformer. The ASDR architecture provides improved signal-to-noise ratio and is scalable.

A system for monitoring the condition of elongate structural elements, for example, railway rails, and a method of designing and manufacturing the system is disclosed. The method includes identifying and selecting suitable modes of propagation and signal frequencies that can be expected to travel large distances through an elongate structural element; designing a transducer that will excite the selected mode at the selected frequency; numerically modelling the transducer as attached to the elongate structural element; validating the transducer design by analysing a harmonic response of the selected mode of propagation to excitation by the transducer, and manufacturing one or more transducers for use in the system.

According to one embodiment, a control method includes setting a transmission angle of an ultrasonic wave to a standard angle. The control method further includes transmitting an ultrasonic wave at the set transmission angle and detecting an intensity of a reflected wave from an object. The control method further includes calculating a tilt angle based on a gradient of the intensity. The tilt angle indicates a tilt of the object. The control method further includes resetting the transmission angle based on the tilt angle.

Methods and devices are provided for analyzing a tubular structure including at least two electromagnetic-acoustic transducers (EMAT) and, called sensors, attachable or attached in, on or in the vicinity of the tubular structure; and computation and/or memory resources, that are accessed locally and/or remotely and that are configured to determine, for the pair of sensors, a function representing the impulse response of the tubular structure on the basis of the diffuse acousto-elastic noise present in the structure. Developments describe the use of rings supporting the sensors; translation and/or rotation movements; permanent or temporary installations; hinged rings; various computation modes, e.g., intercorrelation, a passive inverse filter, or correlation of the coda of the correlation; the use of artificial noise sources, imaging (e.g., tomography) for determining the existence of one or more defects in the structure. Software aspects are described.

The present disclosure provides methods and systems for the characterization of a potential microtexture region (MTR) of a sample, component, or the like. The methods may include determining a threshold width of spatial correlation coefficient and/or a threshold spatial correlation coefficient slope for an actual MTR, characterizing a potential MTR as an actual MTR or a defect, characterizing an actual MTR as an acceptable MTR or not, and/or characterizing various components with potential MTRs as defective or not. The characterization may include calculating a width of spatial correlation coefficient and/or a spatial correlation coefficient slope of the potential MTR and comparing the width of spatial correlation coefficient to a threshold width of spatial correlation coefficient and/or comparing the spatial correlation coefficient slope to a threshold spatial correlation coefficient slope for the potential MTR to be characterized as an actual MTR or a defect (crack).