Mistras Group
Plane Wave Imaging: The Benefits of Total Focusing Method at High Speed
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By: Eddyfi Technologies
Source: Eddyfi Technologies
Plane Wave Imaging (PWI) is an advanced firing mode used by Phased Array Ultrasonic Testing (PAUT)instruments that achieve the high-resolution of Total Focusing Method (TFM) imaging at ultra-fast scanning speeds. In many cases, Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) can also be improved through PWI implementation, optimizing data quality for challenging inspections at the same time as efficiency.

What is Plane Wave Imaging?

A good place to start when talking about advanced imaging is with Full Matrix Capture (FMC); this describes the process of capturing and recording A-scan signals from every transmitter-receiver pair in a phased array probe. FMC fires each element individually for every probe position, recording a received A-scan for each element in the array. For example, for a typical 64-element array probe, the sequence begins with firing element number one and recording the response for all 64 elements in the array. Next, element two is fired, and 64 A-scans are recorded, and so on, until the end of the probe. This means that for a 64-element array utilizing FMC for each recorded scan position, 64 pulses are fired in sequence, and 4096 A-scans are captured. From all this raw A-scan data, it is possible to utilize advanced focusing techniques, like TFM, live or through post-processing.

Read the full article at Eddyfi.com.

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