×

Method of ultrasonic inspection of materials through opaque barriers

  • US 5,118,464 A
  • Filed: 03/15/1991
  • Issued: 06/02/1992
  • Est. Priority Date: 03/15/1991
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
Patent Images

1. In a method of nondestructive acoustical inspection for discontinuities in solid structures including sending an ultrasound wave packet into a solid structure to be inspected, reflecting said ultrasound wave packet from a located discontinuity in the solid structure to be inspected, receiving and transducing the reflected echo of said ultrasound wave packet, and analyzing the reflected echo of said ultrasound wave packet for nondestructive interrogation of the solid structure inspected, the improved method for ultrasound inspection of solid structures through barriers in said solid structures, such as gaps in manufactured solid structures comprising the steps of:

  • providing a first solid structure for originally receiving said interrogating ultrasound;

    providing a second solid structure separated from said first solid structure by a gap;

    flooding said gap between said first and second solid structures with a medium, said medium having a predictable speed of ultrasound transmission for said wave packet;

    transmitting an interrogating wave packet of ultrasound to said first solid structure, the ultrasound of said wave packet when traveling through media such as that media flooding said gap including an instantaneous standing path length within the media which is at least twice the dimension of the gap to be bridged, said interrogating wave packet of said ultrasound containing a frequency having a wavelength relative to the media in said gap to create at least one constructively interfering standing wave node between said first structure and said second solid structure within said media flooding said gap, whereby ultrasound of said frequency passes across said gap;

    passing said ultrasound of said frequency into said second solid structure to acoustically interrogate said second solid structure for discontinuities through reflected ultrasound of said frequency;

    providing a receiving transducer for receiving said reflected ultrasound of said frequency;

    receiving said reflected ultrasound of said frequency at said receiving transducer from the interrogated second solid structure along a path including said second solid structure, said media flooding said gap at a constructively interfering standing wave, and said first solid structure for receipt and analysis of the received reflected ultrasound.

View all claims
  • 1 Assignment
Timeline View
Assignment View
    ×
    ×