Abstract

The time reversal (TR) process manipulates a system's impulse response in order to focus a peak of acoustic energy at a specific location in space and time. This technique has been implemented in both fluid and solid media for purposes ranging from communications to source localization. This thesis will examine both the implementation and processing of TR for nondestructive evaluation in steel, specializing in nonlinear detection methods. A series of steel samples are inspected for stress corrosion cracking (SCC) using TR focusing to excite nonlinearities inherent in cracks. It is determined that SCC exists in the expected regions of the steel samples and that an induced increase in SCC corresponds to an increase in detected nonlinearity. In addition to this, a study is shown wherein TR signal processing is optimized for the detection of cracks. The TR impulse response is modified in a number of ways with the primary goal of increasing the amplitude of the TR focus. Each of these modifications is experimentally scrutinized for characteristics necessary for application to nondestructive evaluation, and ultimately one is chosen that amplifies TR focusing without increasing system nonlinearity. The optimized technique, decay compensation TR, is employed in the detection of SCC and is found to be as or perhaps even more successful than typical TR nondestructive evaluation methods.

Degree

MS

College and Department

Physical and Mathematical Sciences; Physics and Astronomy

Rights

http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2018-08-01

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd10938

Keywords

time reversal, nondestructive evaluation, stress corrosion cracking

Language

english

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