Ultrasonic Imaging of Thick Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers through Pulse-Compression-Based Phased Array

The use of pulse-compression in ultrasonic non-destructive testing has assured, various applications, a significant improvement the signal-to-noise ratio. In this work, technique is combined with linear phased array to improve sensitivity and resolution imaging highly attenuating scattering materials. A series tests were conducted on 60 mm thick carbon fiber reinforced polymer benchmark sample known defects using custom-made pulse-compression-based system. Sector scan total focusing method images obtained developed system compared those reconstructed by commercial pulse-echo While an almost identical was found near field, surpassed standard one far-field producing more accurate deepest backwall sample.