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.

A system and method for detecting an anomaly in a structure using an adaptive filter to compensate for variations in piezoelectric transducer performance due to environmental factors such as temperature. A first voltage signal having a first amplitude is sent to a reference piezoelectric actuator. Thereafter, a first reference voltage signal is received from a reference piezoelectric receiver which is acoustically coupled to detect the guided wave generated by the reference piezoelectric actuator. A second amplitude is determined using an optimization algorithm of an adaptive filter to compensate for nonlinear behavior of the reference piezoelectric actuator and receiver based on the first reference voltage signal. Then the adaptive filter sends a second voltage signal having the second amplitude to the reference and test piezoelectric actuators. Reference and test voltage signals are received from the reference and test piezoelectric receivers in response to the second voltage signal. A difference voltage signal representing differences between the reference and test voltage signals received is then recorded.

An acoustic technique can be used for performing non-destructive testing. For example, a method for acoustic evaluation of a target can include generating respective acoustic transmission events via selected transmitting ones of a plurality of electroacoustic transducers, and in response to the respective acoustic transmission events, receiving respective acoustic echo signals using other receiving ones of the plurality of electroacoustic transducers, and coherently summing representations of the respective received acoustic echo signals to generate a pixel or voxel value corresponding to a specified spatial location of the target. Such summation can include weighting contributions from the respective representations to suppress contributions from acoustic propagation paths outside a specified angular range with respect to a surface on or within the target, such as to provide an acoustic path-filtered total focusing method (PF-TFM).

A signal processing method for ultrasonic inspection includes: a step of generating ultrasonic waves by driving an ultrasonic probe by using a plurality of burst wave signals with different frequencies, respectively, and causing the ultrasonic waves to inject an inspection target; a receiving step of receiving a plurality of multiple reflected waves corresponding to the plurality of burst wave signals having injected the inspection target, respectively; a step of obtaining a plurality of detection signals by executing detection processing of receiving signals of the plurality of multiple reflected waves corresponding to the plurality of burst wave signals, respectively; and a generating step of generating an inspection signal for obtaining an inspection result related to the inspection target by using the plurality of detection signals.

A signal processing method for ultrasonic inspection includes: a step of generating ultrasonic waves by driving an ultrasonic probe by using a plurality of burst wave signals with different frequencies, respectively, and causing the ultrasonic waves to inject an inspection target; a receiving step of receiving a plurality of multiple reflected waves corresponding to the plurality of burst wave signals having injected the inspection target, respectively; a step of obtaining a plurality of detection signals by executing detection processing of receiving signals of the plurality of multiple reflected waves corresponding to the plurality of burst wave signals, respectively; and a generating step of generating an inspection signal for obtaining an inspection result related to the inspection target by using the plurality of detection signals.

A defect detection method and apparatus detecting a defect in an object. The method comprises: obtaining ultrasound scan data derived from an ultrasound scan of the object under consideration, the ultrasound scan data being in the form of a set of echo amplitude values representing the amplitude of echoes received from the object during ultrasound scanning at certain spatial and temporal points; processing the ultrasound scan data to remove echo amplitude values received after a predetermined threshold time; generating at least one image from the processed ultrasound scan data; subjecting each generated image to an automated defect recognition process to determine whether there is a defect in the portion of the object represented by the image; issuing a notification indicating whether or not a defect has been found; and, if a defect has been found, storing the result of the automated defect recognition process in a defect database.

A defect detection method and apparatus detecting a defect in an object. The method comprises: obtaining ultrasound scan data derived from an ultrasound scan of the object under consideration, the ultrasound scan data being in the form of a set of echo amplitude values representing the amplitude of echoes received from the object during ultrasound scanning at certain spatial and temporal points; processing the ultrasound scan data to remove echo amplitude values received after a predetermined threshold time; generating at least one image from the processed ultrasound scan data; subjecting each generated image to an automated defect recognition process to determine whether there is a defect in the portion of the object represented by the image; issuing a notification indicating whether or not a defect has been found; and, if a defect has been found, storing the result of the automated defect recognition process in a defect database.

Examples of determining tuberculation in a fluid distribution system are disclosed. In one example implementation according to aspects of the present disclosure, an acoustical wave generator generates an acoustical wave within a fluid path of a fluid distribution system. A first acoustical sensor and a second acoustical sensor sense the acoustical wave. An acoustical signal analysis module determines an amount of tuberculation within the fluid distribution system by analyzing the sensed acoustical wave.

Examples of determining tuberculation in a fluid distribution system are disclosed. In one example implementation according to aspects of the present disclosure, an acoustical wave generator generates an acoustical wave within a fluid path of a fluid distribution system. A first acoustical sensor and a second acoustical sensor sense the acoustical wave. An acoustical signal analysis module determines an amount of tuberculation within the fluid distribution system by analyzing the sensed acoustical wave.

A method of determining a status of ultrasound coupling medium for performing an ultrasound scan for providing an ultrasound image including plural scanlines (N.sub.l) is disclosed. In an embodiment, the method includes operating an ultrasound device to capture an image frame including plural scanlines (N.sub.l), each scanline having an associated sample set (s) of intensity values; processing a subset of the associated sample set (s) of values for each scanline to determine a first summation for each scanline; processing plural sets of corresponding intensity values from each of plural scanlines located within a range of a respective scanline to determine a set of difference values for each respective scanline; processing each set of difference values to determine a second summation for each scanline; and generating a status for the ultrasound coupling medium according to a relationship between each of the first summations and each of the associated second summations.