Broadband Air-Coupled Ultrasound Emitter and Receiver Enable Simultaneous Measurement of Thickness and Speed of Sound in Solids

Klaas Bente, Janez Rus, Hubert Mooshofer, Mate Gaal, Christian Ulrich Grosse

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Air-coupled ultrasound sensors have advantages over contact ultrasound sensors when a sample should not become contaminated or influenced by the couplant or the measurement has to be a fast and automated inline process. Thereby, air-coupled transducers must emit high-energy pulses due to the low air-to-solid power transmission ratios (10−3 to 10−8). Currently used resonant transducers trade bandwidth—a prerequisite for material parameter analysis—against pulse energy. Here we show that a combination of a non-resonant ultrasound emitter and a non-resonant detector enables the generation and detection of pulses that are both high in amplitude (130 dB) and bandwidth (2 µs pulse width). We further show an initial application: the detection of reflections inside of a carbon fiber reinforced plastic plate with thicknesses between 1.7 mm and 10 mm. As the sensors work contact-free, the time of flight and the period of the in-plate reflections are independent parameters. Hence, a variation of ultrasound velocity is distinguishable from a variation of plate thickness and both properties are determined simultaneously. The sensor combination is likely to find numerous industrial applications necessitating high automation capacity and opens possibilities for air-coupled, single-side ultrasonic inspection.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1379
JournalSensors (Switzerland)
Volume23
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2023

Keywords

  • air-coupled ultrasound
  • local resonance
  • optical microphone
  • thermoacoustic emitter
  • thickness measurement
  • thickness resonance

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