Ultrasonic Defect Mapping Using Signal Correlation for Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE)

This article presents the application of a signal correlation technique to automatically classify ultrasonic A-scan signals for defect and defect-free regions in isotropic and anisotropic materials. First, feature extraction was implemented by generating a reference A-scan signal of a defect-free area using an autocorrelation function and statistics. Then, a cross-correlation function, utilized as a feature detector, was applied to the reference signal and a signal of interest (SOI) to detect defect-free features in an SOI. The correlation result was considered as a pattern containing both defect and defect-free features. Next, the pattern was classified by measuring the similarity between features of the reference signal and an SOI based on their Euclidean distance. Each A-scan signal classification result was then plotted on a 2D map based on its position on the specimen. The present work uses multiple correlation functions and statistics to classify defect signals rather than relying on an inspector’s ...