General Ultrasonic System
Generally an ultrasonic system consists of an ultrasonic transducers or a pair of ultrasonic transducers and several units as shown below :
Figure 1. Block diagram of general ultrasonic system
The principle operations of this system are :
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Transmitter unit transmits a repetitive high voltage electric pulse signals.
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Transmitter transducer T receives the high voltage pulse electric signal, converts to ultrasonic waves and radiates it into the medium.
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Receiver transducer receives the transmitted, reflected, diffracted, refracted or scattered waves and converts it back to electric pulse signals.
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Receiver unit amplifies and filters the electric pulse signals.
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Measuring unit measures the arrival times and amplitudes of the signals.
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Analyzer unit calculates the speed of sound and the coefficient of attenuation.
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Processing unit processes further the signals for advanced applications such as time of flight diffraction (TOFD), split spectrum processing (SSP), ultrasonic tomography and ultrasonic spectroscopy.
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Display unit shows the objective parameter of the application.