Experimental Evaluation of Three Designs of Electrodynamic Flexural Transducers.

Three designs for electrodynamic flexural transducers (EDFT) for air-coupled ultrasonics are presented and compared. An all-metal housing was used for robustness, which makes the designs more suitable for industrial applications. The housing is designed such that there is a thin metal plate at the front, with a fundamental flexural vibration mode at ∼50 kHz. By using a flexural resonance mode, good coupling to the load medium was achieved without the use of matching layers. The front radiating plate is actuated electrodynamically by a spiral coil inside the transducer, which produces an induced magnetic field when an AC current is applied to it. The transducers operate without the use of piezoelectric materials, which can simplify manufacturing and prolong the lifetime of the transducers, as well as open up possibilities for high-temperature applications. The results show that different designs perform best for the generation and reception of ultrasound. All three designs produced large acoustic pressure outputs, with a recorded sound pressure level (SPL) above 120 dB at a 40 cm distance from the highest output transducer. The sensitivity of the transducers was low, however, with single shot signal-to-noise ratio ( SNR ) ≃ 15 dB in transmit-receive mode, with transmitter and receiver 40 cm apart.

Parallel strip waveguide for ultrasonic flow measurement in harsh environments.

Wetted ultrasonic transit time flow meters typically consist of one or more pairs of transducers, containing piezoelectric elements, which alternate between transmitting and detecting an ultrasonic pulse. Typical piezoelectric materials and the adhesives used to attach the piezoelectric element in such devices can be damaged by hostile environments, such as extreme temperature, potentially limiting possible applications of ultrasonic flow measurement techniques. We have investigated a design for a flow meter with an integrated thermal buffer waveguide consisting of five parallel stainless steel strips. These, in addition to thermal protection, may function as a transducer array, with the possibility of steering the emitted field. Because the buffer strips used in the transducer assembly are thin, one might expect Lamb-like guided waves to propagate along it. However, the finite width of the strips has a significant effect on the propagation characteristics of the guided waves. In this work, the effect of the waveguide's small rectangular cross-section has been studied. Additionally, we have examined the effect of thermal gradients on the average sound speed and dispersion characteristics of such strip waveguides. We also suggest modifications to the plate geometry, which can alter both the frequency content and the shape of the transmitted pulse, potentially giving a better signal to use in flow measurement.

Application of conformal map theory for design of 2-D ultrasonic array structure for NDT imaging application: a feasibility study.

Two-dimensional ultrasonic phased arrays are becoming increasingly popular in nondestructive evaluation (NDE). Sparse array element configurations are required to fully exploit the potential benefits of 2-D phased arrays. This paper applies the conformal mapping technique as a means of designing sparse 2-D array layouts for NDE applications. Modeling using both Huygens' field prediction theory and 2-D fast Fourier transformation is employed to study the resulting new structure. A conformal power map was used that, for fixed beam width, was shown in simulations to have a greater contrast than rectangular or random arrays. A prototype aperiodic 2-D array configuration for direct contact operation in steel, with operational frequency ~3 MHz, was designed using the array design principle described in this paper. Experimental results demonstrate a working sparse-array transducer capable of performing volumetric imaging.