A signalling

In the experiments, the probabilities were estimated from the processed signal by means of a histogram. It is well known that the entropy is large for nearly uniform distributions and small for distributions with few peaks. Thus it is an interesting candidate as a performance measure when the goal is to process a signal to become more easily interpreted. 

The detectability of critical defects with CT depends on the final image quality and the skill of the operator, see figure 2. The basic concepts of image quality are resolution, contrast, and noise. Image quality are generally described by the signal-to-noise ratio SNR), the modulation transfer function (MTF) and the noise power spectrum (NFS). SNR is the quotient of a signal and its variance, MTF describes the contrast as a function of spatial frequency and NFS in turn describes the noise power at various spatial frequencies [1, 3]. 

For an industrial application it is necessary to separate the response of a real crack from artifacts, and to derive information about the geometry and the location of the crack. For this purpose we have developed a filter which is sensitive to the characteristic features of a signal caused by a crack and amplifies it, whereas signals without these typical features are suppressed. In Fig. 5.1 first results obtained with such an iterative filter algorithm are shown. 

The operation is quite simple One sets the frequency to the lowest value, adjusts the gain and phase to the desired sensitivity using a special calibration standard discussed below and performs a zero-compensation on a defect free zone of the standard. Now one is ready to test. As one slides the probe across the surface of an aluminum structure, a signal response will be indicative of the presence of corrosion or of the presence of a subsurface edge. 

The probe receives a signal when either the driver or detector coil passes a flaw or other feature in the tube A signal is produced over the full length of the flaw. It is affected by geometry and permeability changes which cause the instrument zero to wander. 

There will be a signal only when the flaw passes the pick up coil system. 

Often an unit impulse is not available as a signal to get the impulse response function g(x). Therefore an other characteristic signal, the unit step, is be used. 

Oppenheim, A. Willsky, A. Signale und Systeme. Lehrbuch.VCH Verlagsgesell-schaft. Weinheim, 1989. 

The purpose of the nondestructive control consists in detecting local modifications of the material parameters which, by their presence can endanger the quality of the half-finished or finished products. The electromagnetic nondestructive control permits to render evident surface and subsurface discontinuities in the electroconductive material under test. The present tendency of this control is to pass from a qualitative evaluation (the presence or absence of the material discontinuities which give at the output of the control equipment a signal higher or at least equal to that coming from a standard discontinuity whose shape and severity has been prescribed by the product standards) to a quantitative one, which enables to locate as exactly as possible the discontinuity and to make predictions over its shape and severity. 

Fig.l shows the layout of the SPATE 9000 system. It basically consists of a scan unit connected to a signal amplifier. The signals are then correlated with a reference signal derived from a load transducer (e.g. strain gauge, load cell, accelerometer, or function generator). 

The combination of contrast and granularity produces a signal to noise ratio which allows for direct comparison of various films. The classes have minimum values for eontrast and maximum values for graininess. The ASTM classification system employs the same parameters as the European Standard EN584-1 and ISO CD (see Table 1). 

The base of this estimation is the signal to noise ratio. The lowest signal to noise ratio S/N which is necessary as a minimum to discern a signal from noise is S/N = 2 1 (4). Referring to the limiting values for the granularity Oj, of the film system classes the smallest density difference AD of an defect which would just be visible should be at least two times greater than On. 

The aim of the experiment was to study the transmission of a signal through the weld and to measure the frequency and phase dependencies of parameters of acoustic signals from the angle of incidence and beam path within the weld volume. One of the shift of the spectral characteristics the signal is shown in Figure 4(a,b). 

To restore resolution, we proposed a signal processing method based on Papoulis deconvolution. We implemented this algorithm and tried to operate an improvement from an aluminum rod smaller than the wavelength. 

Based upon a piezoelectric 1-3-composite material, air-bome ultrasonic probes for frequencies up to 2 MHz were developped. These probes are characterized by a bandwidth larger than 50 % as well as a signal-to-noise ratio higher than 100 dB. Applications are the thickness measurement of thin powder layers, the inspection of sandwich structures, the detection of surface near cracks in metals or ceramics by generation/reception of Rayleigh waves and the inspection of plates by Lamb waves. 

The HILL-SCAN 30XX boards enable ultrasonic inspections from 50 kHz (concrete inspections) to 35 MHz (inspection of thin layers) with a signal to noise ratio up to 60 dB. The gain setting range of the receiver is 106 dB. High- and low pass filters in the receiver can be combined to band-passes, so that optimal A-scans are displayed. 

The software also hosts a maximum amplitude function which ensures that the signal with the largest amplitude is stored for each point. This function also guarantees that such a signal is not written over by a following scan producing a lower amplitude signal at the same point. 

A signal processing scheme to enhance the signal to noise ratio,... 

Figure Al.7.12. Secondary electron kinetic energy distribution, obtained by measuring the scadered electrons produced by bombardment of Al(lOO) with a 170 eV electron beam. The spectrum shows the elastic peak, loss features due to the excitation of plasmons, a signal due to the emission of Al LMM Auger electrons and the inelastic tail. The exact position of the cutoff at 0 eV depends on die surface work fimction.

Scaiming probe microscopies have become the most conspicuous surface analysis tecimiques since their invention in the mid-1980s and the awarding of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics [71, 72]- The basic idea behind these tecimiques is to move an extremely fine tip close to a surface and to monitor a signal as a fiinction of the tip s position above the surface. The tip is moved with the use of piezoelectric materials, which can control the position of a tip to a sub-Angstrom accuracy, while a signal is measured that is indicative of the surface topography. These tecimiques are described in detail in section BI.20. 

Figure Bl.10.2. Schematic diagram of a counting experiment. The detector intercepts signals from the source. The output of the detector is amplified by a preamplifier and then shaped and amplified friitlier by an amplifier. The discriminator has variable lower and upper level tliresholds. If a signal from the amplifier exceeds tlie lower tlireshold while remaming below the upper tlireshold, a pulse is produced that can be registered by a preprogrammed counter. The contents of the counter can be periodically transferred to an online storage device for fiirther processing and analysis. The pulse shapes produced by each of the devices are shown schematically above tlieni.

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