A combined marching and minimizing ray-tracing algorithm developed for ultrasonic array imaging of austenitic welds

• Published in: NDT & E international : independent nondestructive testing and evaluation Vol. 95; pp. 45 - 56
• Main Authors: Zhou, Haipeng, Han, Zandong, Du, Dong, Chen, Yifang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.04.2018
• Subjects: Anisotropic material; Austenitic weld; Ray-tracing; Ultrasonic array imaging; Anisotropic material; Ultrasonic array imaging; Austenitic weld; Ray-tracing
• ISSN: 0963-8695; 1879-1174
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ndteint.2018.01.008

In order to improve the performance of defect sizing and locating in the ultrasonic inspection of austenitic welds, it is important to predict ultrasonic propagation paths using ray-tracing algorithms considering the anisotropy and inhomogeneity of the weld. An effective ray-tracing algorithm is proposed in this paper, which predicts rays in a P2M mode (from a point to a target matrix). The algorithm combines the marching ray-tracing strategy and the minimizing ray-tracing strategy to improve the computing efficiency and accuracy. The performances of both two ray-tracing strategies were analyzed, based on which the parameters of the proposed algorithm were optimized. The propagation times of all the target points were acquired by the algorithm and applied for ultrasonic array imaging. Images generated using inspection experimental signals can prove that the proposed algorithm can achieve P2M ray-tracing efficiently and realize good imaging performance. •An effective ultrasonic ray-tracing algorithm for array imaging is proposed.•The algorithm combines the ray-tracing strategies of marching and minimizing.•Both ray-tracing strategies were analyzed to optimize the algorithm's parameters.•Inspection experiments were carried out to generate images for verification.•The proposed algorithm can realize good imaging performance for defect locating.