A method of testing for thickness loss in a metal wall is disclosed. The method includes mounting a first and a second ultrasonic transducer to the metal such that the transducers are in ultrasonic communication along a beam line and moving the first and second ultrasonic transducers along a scan line. A series of composites of received signal measurements are obtained by, at multiple locations along the scan line, using the first ultrasonic transducer to transmit ultrasonic signals through the metal wall along the beam line at a plurality of transmission angles and obtaining composites of received signal amplitudes by combining signal amplitudes measured by the second ultrasonic transducer. The series of composites are input into a predetermined relationship to obtain a thickness profile indicative of a proportion of remaining wall thickness. The predetermined relationship is experimentally obtained to characterize a given metal wall of nominal thickness.

A nondestructive method for a volumetric examination of a blade root of a turbine blade while the turbine blade is installed in a turbine shaft of a steam turbine includes attaching a bracket to the turbine blade, the bracket conforming to the geometry of the turbine blade, positioning an ultrasonic phased array probe within a slot formed in the bracket to enable the probe to translate along the geometry of the turbine blade to a desired position for generation of a scan of a portion of the blade root, generating a scan of the desired position by directing ultrasonic waves via the ultrasonic phased array probe, and capturing reflected ultrasonic waves by a receiver to generate the scan and comparing the scan to a reference scan of the blade root to determine defects within the blade root.

Detection of gas characteristics, especially the detection of the gas composition, the temperature and/or humidity of a gas, by measuring the speed of sound with a sound sender and a sound receiver both mounted on common structure. A method for determining the humidity of the scavenge air of an internal combustion engine. A speed of sound based gas sensor arrangement adapted to measure gas characteristics, especially the gas composition, the temperature and/or the humidity of a gas, including a sender, a receiver and a signal processing unit. The speed of sound is determined by driving the sender and receiver at different operation cycles in order to differentiate between the different travel times of the sound through the gas and the common structure of solid material.

Aspects of the disclosure include systems, methods, and program products for evaluating the condition of a component using an acoustic sensor embedded within a lighting device. A system according to the present disclosure can include a first lighting device configured to illuminate an area of an industrial plant; a first acoustic sensor embedded within the first lighting device and configured to detect an acoustic signature of a component in the industrial plant; a computing device communicatively connected to the first acoustic sensor and configured to evaluate a condition of the component in the industrial plant based on the acoustic signature.

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 object of the invention is to perform, rapidly and at a low cost, a pretreatment of an analysis sample containing a turbid substance. Provided is an analysis sample pretreatment apparatus in which a clarified liquid is obtained by removing a turbid substance from an analysis sample. The analysis sample pretreatment apparatus includes a cell configured to store the analysis sample, and a cell holder in which at least a part of a housing is opened to mount the cell. The cell holder includes an ultrasonic wave transducer and an ultrasonic wave reflection plate that are disposed on facing plane pairs while sandwiching the cell mounted inside the cell holder. The cell includes a first opening unit from which the analysis sample flows in, a second opening unit from which the clarified liquid flows out, and a third opening unit from which the turbid substance is discharged. In a state where the cell is mounted in the cell holder, the first opening unit is provided at a position lower than an upper end of the ultrasonic wave transducer in a vertical direction, or at a position higher than a lower end of the ultrasonic wave transducer in the vertical direction.

Methods and devices for detecting a defect in a rail of a railway track, include at least two sensors selected from among magneto-acoustic and/or piezoelectric and/or magnetostrictive transducers; each sensor being associated with a timestamping circuit of a GNSS satellite positioning system; a measuring circuit for measuring, by way of the sensors, the acousto-elastic waves propagating in the rail, the wave or signal measurements being timestamped. Some developments describe notably active and passive modes; the use of train crossings; the emission of waves; the determination of the existence and then of the position and finally the characterization of the defect, where applicable; preferred placements for installing the sensors; the use of inter-correlation, passive inverse filter or correlation of coda of correlation methods; the use of mobile robots and/or drones; the use of artificial noise sources.

The present disclosure relates to an ultrasonic device for real-time and nondestructive assessment of extracellular matrix stiffness, and the method of making and using the novel ultrasonic device.

A device for determining and/or monitoring a process variable of a medium includes a sensor unit having a mechanically oscillatable unit, a first piezoelectric element, a unit for determining and/or monitoring a temperature of the medium and an electronic system. The device is designed to excite the mechanically oscillatable unit and to receive the mechanical oscillations of the oscillatable unit, to convert them into a first receiving signal, to emit a transmission signal and to receive a second receiving signal, wherein the electronic system is designed to determine the process variable based on the first and/or second receiving signal. The unit for determining and/or monitoring the temperature includes a first and a second temperature sensor arranged at a distance from one another, and the electronic system is designed to determine the temperature of the medium based on a first and/or second temperature receiving signal.