Funding:

• • National Science Foundation

  • Department of Transportation/Federal Railroad Administration 

  • Federal Aviation Administration

Purpose:

To advance the ultrasonic Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique (SAFT) for imaging of solids and biological media.

Synopsis:

The Ultrasonic Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique (SAFT) is one of the most successful method to create images of the interior of solids and biological media for either non-destructive testing purposes or for medical diagnosis. This field is therefore quite fertile in both engineering and medical communities. UCSD is performing research to improve the performance of the SAFT, in order to obtain images with increased dynamic range or contrast, decreased side lobe levels, and high frame rates. Applications of interest range from 3D objects (using bulk Longitudinal and Shear waves) to waveguide objects (using multimode and dispersive guided waves). Among the various research steps that are being taken towards this performance improvements are: (1) utilizing wave mode structure weights in the beamforming algorithms; (2) compounding images from multiple wave modes; (3) utilizing GPU processing for high frame rates. In addition, a collaboration with UCSD's Nanoengineering Department is ongoing to apply these improvements to flexible and stretchable transducer arrays for applications to complex surfaces including wearable sensors. 

Selected Publications:

Huang, C. and Lanza di Scalea, F., “Application of sparse synthetic aperture focusing techniques to ultrasound imaging in solids using a wedge transducer,” IEEE Trans. Ultrason. Ferroelectr. Freq. Control, DOI: 10.1109/TUFFC.2023.3343295 , Dec. 2023.

Huang, C. and Lanza di Scalea, F., “Rail Flaw Imaging Prototype Based on Improved Ultrasonic Synthetic Aperture Focus Method,” ASNT Materials Evaluation Journal, Special Issue on NDT of Railroads, A. Poudel, ed., Jan 2024 (inv. paper)

Huang, C., and Lanza di Scalea, F., “Ultrasound time reversal imaging of extended targets using a broadband white noise constraint processor,” Proceedings Volume 12470, Medical Imaging 2023: Ultrasonic Imaging and Tomography; 1247006 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2654462, SPIE Medical Imaging, 2023, San Diego, California, United States. 

Datta, D., Huang, C., Hosseinzadeh, A., Batista, I., and Lanza di Scalea, F., “Frontiers In Ultrasonic Rail Inspections: High-Speed Testing And Quantitative Hand-Held Verification,” Proceedings of the 2023 ASME Joint Rail Conference (ASME JRC), April 11-13, 2023, Baltimore, Maryland 

Huang, C. and Lanza di Scalea, F., “Development of Rail Flaw Imaging Technology Based on Ultrasonic Tomography,” Final Technical Report to the Federal Railroad Administration, (47 pages), December 2022. 

 Huang, C. And Lanza di Scalea, F., “High Resolution Real Time Synthetic Aperture Imaging in Solids Using Virtual Elements,” Proceedings of the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exhibition (IMECE 2022), Columbus, Ohio, October 30 - November 3, 2022.

Huang, C. and Lanza di Scalea, F. "Ultrasonic Imaging In Solids Using Time Reversal Operator And Coherent Matched Field Processing", SPIE Vol. 11593, Health Monitoring of Structural and Biological Systems XV, part of SPIE Smart Structures and Nondestructive Evaluation Symposium, https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2581459, March 2021 

Pau, A., Sternini, S., and Lanza di Scalea, F., “Ultrasonic Guided Wave Imaging Of Plates Containing Defects And Inclusions,” Proceedings of IEEE International Ultrasonic Symposium (IUS), September 6-11, 2020 

Sternini, S., Pau, A, and Lanza di Scalea, F., “Minimum Variance Imaging in Plates Using Guided Wave Mode Beamforming,” IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control (IEEE-UFFC), 66(12), 2019.

Sternini, S., Liang, A.Y. and Lanza di Scalea, F., “Ultrasonic Synthetic Aperture Imaging with Interposed Transducer-Medium Coupling Path,” SHM International Journal, 18(5-6), pp. 1543-1556, 2019.

Liang, A., Sternini, S., Capriotti, M., and Lanza di Scalea, F., “Rail defect Imaging by Improved Ultrasonic Synthetic Aperture Focus Techniques,” Materials Evaluations, Special Issue on NDT of Railroads, Dr. Anish Poudel, ed., 77(7), pp31-940, 2019. 

Hu, H., Zhu, X., Sternini, S., Lanza di Scalea, F., Xu, S., et. al. “Stretchable Ultrasonic Transducers for Three-Dimensional Imaging on Complex Surfaces,” Science Advances, 4(3), pp. 1-11, 2018. 

Sternini, S., Quattrocchi, A., Montanini, R., Pau, A. and Lanza di Scalea, F., “A Match Coefficient Approach For Damage Imaging In Structural Components By Ultrasonic Synthetic Aperture Focus,” CD-ROM Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Structural Dynamics, EURODYN 2017, Elsevier, Procedia Engineering, F. Vestroni, F. Romeo and V. Gattulli, eds., vol. 199, pp. 1-6, 2017 

Lanza di Scalea, F., Sternini, S. and Nguyen, T., “Ultrasonic Imaging in Solids Using Wave Mode Beamforming,” IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control (IEEE-UFFC), 64(3), pp 602-616, 2017. 

Nguyen, T., Sternini, S., and Lanza di Scalea, F., “Advances In Ultrasonic Defect Detection and Imaging in Structures,” Proceedings 5th International Conference on Smart and Multifunctional Materials Structures & Systems (CIMTEC) – Symposium P, Perugia, pp. 1-5, June 5-9, 2016. 

Nguyen, T., Sternini, S., and Lanza di Scalea, F., “3D Ultrasonic Imaging Applications on Rails,” Proceedings of the ASME Joint Rail Conference (ASME-JRC), paper no. JRC2016-5760, pp. 1-10, Columbia, SC, April 12-15, 2016. 

Phillips, R., Lanza di Scalea, F., Nucera, C., Rizzo, P., Al-Nazer, L., “Ultrasonic Tomography for Rail Flaw Imaging,” CD-ROM Proceedings of the 2014 ASME Joint Rail Conference, Colorado Springs, CO, pp. 1-10, April 2-4, 2014. 

 Lanza di Scalea, F., Rizzo, P., Salamone, S., Bartoli, I., Al-Nazer, L., “Ultrasonic Tomography for Three-Dimensional Imaging of Internal Rail Flaws: Proof-of-principle Numerical Simulations,” Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, no. 2374, Washington DC, pp. 162-168, 2013.

Lanza di Scalea, F., Rizzo, P., Salamone, S., Bartoli, I. and Al-Nazer, L., “Ultrasonic Tomography for Three-Dimensional Imaging of Internal Rail Flaws: Proof-of-principle Numerical Simulations,” CD-ROM Proceedings of the 92th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Washington DC, January 2013.