Non-destructive determination of electromagnetic properties

• US 8,400,166 B2
• Filed: 04/29/2009
• Issued: 03/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Geren, William Preston
• Primary Examiner(s): Koval, Melissa
• Assistant Examiner(s): Baldridge, Benjamin M
• Application Number:
  US12/432,461
• Publication Number:
  US 20100277184A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,420 Days
• Field of Search: 324/637
• US Class Current: 324/637
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 27/00 Arrangements for measuring resistance, reactance, impedance, or electric characteristics derived therefrom
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 27/2658 Cavities, resonators, free space arrangements, reflexion or interference arrangements G01R27/2647 takes precedence; optical methods G01R27/2682

Abstract

Systems and methods to determine electromagnetic properties are provided. A particular method includes directing electromagnetic energy toward an article under test. The method also includes taking measurements of electromagnetic energy scattered by the article under test. The method further includes determining expected baseline values of at least one electromagnetic property of the article under test. The expected baseline values are based on electromagnetic energy scattered by a control article. The method also includes determining output data based on a difference between the expected baseline values and characteristic values of the article under test determined based on the measurements of electromagnetic energy scattered by the article under test. The output data includes values indicative of inhomogeneous distribution of an electromagnetic property of the article under test.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

directing electromagnetic energy toward an article under test;

taking measurements of electromagnetic energy scattered by the article under test;

determining expected baseline values of at least one electromagnetic property of the article under test, wherein the expected baseline values are determined based on measurements of electromagnetic energy scattered by a control article;

determining a difference between the expected baseline values and characteristic values of the article under test, wherein the characteristic values of the article under test are determined based on measurements of electromagnetic energy scattered by the article under test; and

determining output data based on the determined difference between the expected baseline values and the characteristic values of the article under test, wherein the output data includes values that indicate a distribution of the at least one electromagnetic property of the article under test, and wherein the output data is determined using a distorted wave Born approximation and singular value decomposition to estimate values of an electromagnetic field internal to the article under test based on the measurements of the electromagnetic energy scattered by the article under test.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a number of measurements to be taken of the electromagnetic energy scattered by the article under test to limit measurement error due to noise before determining the output data.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the number of measurements to be taken of the electromagnetic energy scattered by the article under test is determined based on the measurements of the electromagnetic energy scattered by the control article, and wherein a distribution of the at least one electromagnetic property of the control article is substantially homogeneous.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

taking the measurements of electromagnetic energy scattered by the control article; and

generating the expected baseline values based on the measurements taken of the electromagnetic energy scattered by the control article.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein a distribution of the at least one electromagnetic property of the control article is substantially homogeneous.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the electromagnetic energy is directed toward the article under test from a plurality of incident angles.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the electromagnetic energy comprises an electromagnetic plane wave.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the distribution of the electromagnetic property of the article under test is determined to about one sixteenth of a wavelength of the electromagnetic energy in a dielectric material.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the distribution of the electromagnetic property of the article under test is determined with about thirty-five percent or less error.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, comprising:

instructions executable by a processor to access expected baseline values of an article under test, wherein the expected baseline values are determined based on measurements of electromagnetic energy scattered by a control article;

instructions executable by the processor to determine difference values between the expected baseline values and characteristic values of the article under test, wherein the characteristic values of the article under test are determined based on measurements of electromagnetic energy scattered by the article under test when an electromagnetic plane wave is directed toward the article under test; and

instructions executable by the processor to generate output data based on the determined difference values, wherein the output data indicates a distribution of an electromagnetic property of the article under test, and wherein the output data is generated using a distorted wave Born approximation and singular value decomposition to estimate values of an electromagnetic field internal to the article under test based on the measurements of the electromagnetic energy scattered by the article under test.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the distribution of the electromagnetic property includes values of a dielectric constant of the article under test at a plurality of physical locations.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, further comprising instructions executable by the processor to provide control input to a manufacturing process when the distribution of the electromagnetic property of the article under test satisfies an inhomogeneity threshold, wherein the control input includes information used to modify the manufacturing process, and wherein a distribution of the electromagnetic property of a subsequent article under test manufactured by the modified manufacturing process does not satisfy the inhomogeneity threshold.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, further comprising instructions executable by the processor to generate an alert when the distribution of the electromagnetic property of the article under test satisfies an inhomogeneity threshold.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, further comprising instructions executable by the processor to generate an alert when a difference between the distribution of the electromagnetic property of the article under test and the expected baseline values satisfies a skew threshold.

15. A system, comprising:

an antenna to direct an electromagnetic plane wave toward an article under test;

at least one probe to take measurements of electromagnetic energy scattered by the article under test;

a memory storing expected baseline values of at least one electromagnetic property of the article under test, wherein the expected baseline values are determined based on measurements of electromagnetic energy scattered by a control article; and

a processor to;

determine difference values between the expected baseline values and a plurality of measured characteristic values of the article under test, wherein the plurality of measured characteristic values are determined based on the measurements of electromagnetic energy scattered by the article under test; and

generate output data based on the determined difference values that indicate a distribution of the at least one electromagnetic property of the article under test, wherein the output data is generated using a distorted wave Born approximation and singular value decomposition to estimate values of an electromagnetic field internal to the article under test based on the measurements of the electromagnetic energy scattered by the article under test.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein a distribution of the at least one electromagnetic property of the control article is substantially homogenous.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the electromagnetic plane wave has a frequency in a microwave range.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the measurements of the electromagnetic energy scattered by the article under test include measurements at multiple frequencies, and wherein the processor is further configured to identify frequency dependent electromagnetic characteristics of the article under test.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the article under test comprises an aircraft component.