1202results about "Ultrasonic/sonic/infrasonic wave generation" patented technology

A method of assaying an analyte in a body part comprising: illuminating the body part with at least one pulse of light at each of first and second wavelengths that stimulates photoacoustic waves in a first, target, region and a second, reference, region of the body part, wherein the reference region interfaces with the target region and has at least one known optoacoustic property and wherein light at the first wavelength is absorbed by the analyte; sensing pressure in the photoacoustic waves from the target and reference regions stimulated by the light at the first and second wavelengths; and using the sensed pressures and the at least one known optoacoustic property to assay the analyte in the target region.

An ultrasonic probe includes a light irradiating portion configured to radiate light for generating ultrasonic waves from a light absorber, an ultrasonic transducing portion configured to transduce the ultrasonic waves to an electric signal, and a light guide member configured to introduce light from a light source to the light irradiating portion. A light irradiating region of the light irradiating portion is included within an ultrasonic receiving region of the ultrasonic transducing portion.

Method and apparatus for ultrasonic inspection of an object. A tire is mounted for rolling along the surface of the object. It contains a liquid and a transducer assembly. The transducer assembly is positioned in the tire adjacent a portion of the surface of the tire in contact with the object. The liquid and the surface of the tire in contact with the object provide an acoustic bridge between the transducer assembly and the object. An electric signal processing system is connected to the transducer assembly. It generates electric signals which are converted to acoustic signals in the transducer assembly to place acoustic signals in the object. Acoustic signals returned from the object are converted to electric signals by the transducer assembly, and are processed in the electric signal processing system to indicate flaws in the object.

Methods, apparatus and systems for characterizing changes in at least one physical property of soft tissue. A series of acoustic pulses is generated and directed into the soft tissue such that at least one of the pulses is of sufficiently high intensity to induce physical displacement of the tissue. Waves reflected off the tissue, or a flexible member that moves with the tissue, are received and measured to estimate at least one characteristic of the physical displacement induced thereby. Repetition of the generating, receiving and estimating steps provides characterization of the at least one physical property over time. Methods, apparatus and systems for characterizing at least one physical property of blood, by generating a series of acoustic pulses and directing the series of pulses into the blood such that at least one of the pulses is of sufficiently high intensity to induce physical displacement of the blood. Acoustic pulses and/or optical waves reflected from the blood, or a flexible member in contact with the blood that moves with the blood, are received and measured to estimate at least one characteristic of the physical displacement induced thereby.

An apparatus 10 is provided that measures the speed of sound propagating in a multiphase mixture to determine parameters, such as mixture quality, particle size, vapor/mass ratio, liquid/vapor ratio, mass flow rate, enthalpy and volumetric flow rate of the flow in a pipe or unconfined space, for example, using acoustic and/or dynamic pressures. The apparatus includes a pair of ultrasonic transducers disposed axially along the pipe for measuring the transit time of an ultrasonic signal to propagate from one ultrasonic transducer to the other ultrasonic transducer. A signal process, responsive to said transit time signal, provides a signal representative of the speed of sound of the mixture. An SOS processing unit then provides an output signal indicative of at least one parameter of the mixture flowing through the pipe. The frequency of the ultrasonic signal is sufficiently low to minimize scatter from particle/liquid within the mixture. The frequency based sound speed is determined utilizing a dispersion model to determine the at least one parameter of the fluid flow and/or mixture.

The invention concerns a method and a device for inspecting pipelines, in particular for detecting defects in pipelines by means of ultrasound. Towards this end, measuring sensors transmit ultrasound signals during passage through a pipeline. The signals reflected on boundary regions of a pipeline wall, e.g. surfaces or defects, are then measured and evaluated. The invention is characterized in that partial regions of the measuring sensors (virtual sensors) formed of a plurality of neighboring sensor elements irradiate ultrasound signals into the pipe wall at at least one radiation angle which is inclined with respect to the normal to the pipe wall and the signals reflected at boundary regions of the pipe wall are received by same and/or other partial regions of the respective measuring sensors, wherein defects in the pipe wall are determined by evaluation of the acoustical signals reflected by different boundary regions.

A device for detecting at least one substance of a fluid includes at least one piezo-acoustic resonator with at least one piezo layer, an electrode arranged on the piezo-electric layer, at least one other electrode arranged on the piezo-electric layer and a surface section used for sorption of the substance of the fluid. The piezo-electric layer, the electrodes and the surface section are disposed in such a way that electric control of the electrodes leads to an oscillation of the resonator at a resonance frequency which depends upon the amount of the substance which is sorbed on the surface section. The thickness of the pioelectric layer is in the region of 0.5 to 20 μm and the resonance frequency of the oscillation ranges from 500 MHz to 2 GHz. The device is a mass sensor with a piezo-acoustic high-frequency thin film resonator.

An improved system, device and method for characterizing a fluid sample that includes injecting a fluid sample into a mobile phase of a flow characterization system, and detecting a property of the fluid sample or of a component thereof with a flow detector comprising a mechanical resonator, preferably one that is operated at a frequency less than about 1 MHz, such as a tuning fork resonator.

An imaging probe having multi-level transmitter cells. The imaging probe includes a plurality of acoustical sub-elements for transmitting and receiving acoustic energy for imaging. Each of the multi-level transmitter cells is arranged along a respective transmitter cell path between a switching matrix and one of the acoustical sub-elements. The multi-level transmitter cells in the probe are capable of producing signals having multiple voltage levels.

A method of determining the acoustic impedance of a fluid in a borehole, by gating a reflected acoustic signal into a plurality of time slots, and comparing received energies of the signal for the time slots to obtain a value indicative of the acoustic impedance of the fluid. The value may be normalized to yield the acoustic impedance of the fluid using the acoustic impedance of, e.g., water as a calibration point. The comparison is performed by comparing a ratio of an integration of a first ring down time slot and a second ring down time slot, to an integration of an internal reflection time slot. The acoustic pulse may be generated using a transducer immersed in an intermediate fluid contained within a chamber defined in part by a plate in contact with the borehole fluid and having a thickness such that a mechanical resonance frequency of the plate in a thickness mode is substantially equal to a resonance frequency of the transducer. The sonic velocity of the fluid is also measured and, when combined with the acoustic impedance, is used to determine the fluid density.

In a method of detecting discontinuities on elongated workpieces, in particular tubes and bars, using ultrasonic testing system, a test object is positioned in relationship to a test head of the testing system, with the test object and the test head being moveable to one another. Signals from the test head are transmitted to an evaluation unit, where they are digitized and evaluated. The digitized signals of a test shot of a length position X are compared with digitized signals of a test shot of a length position X+ΔX, wherein ΔX is a multiple of a shot distance, and the difference is evaluated.

The invention discloses a pipeline defect detection method based on electromagnetic ultrasonic longitudinal guided waves. The method comprises the following steps: arranging a plurality of annular magnets coaxial with a pipeline, so as to generate a radial static magnetic field on the surface of the pipeline; coaxially sleeving two sides of each annular magnet array with solenoid coils, so as to generate circumferential inducing vortex in the to-be-detected pipeline; and stimulating longitudinal-mode guided waves under the combined action of the circumferential inducing vortex and the radial static magnetic field, wherein when encountering a defect, the longitudinal-mode guided waves are reflected, and reflection echoes cause change of sensing voltage of a sensing coil when passing through a sensing coil, so as to judge that whether the defect exists in the pipeline or not. The invention further discloses a detection device and a sensor for detecting the pipeline by virtue of the device and the method. According to the method, the radial magnetic fields at the edges of the magnet arrays are adequately utilized, and the uniform radial magnetic field does not need to be generated, so that the complexity of the sensor is reduced; meanwhile, a single longitudinal-mode guided wave signal can be obtained, so that the defect signal analysis difficulty is reduced, and the detection process is rapid and efficient.

The invention relates to a fast scanning method of pipeline drawbacks and a non-destructive detection device, which is more particularly suitable for fast scanning and non-destructive detection of drawbacks of the pipelines with insulation. The invention is composed of a guided wave sensor, a transmitting module, a receiving module, a signal generating module, a power amplifying module, a signal processing module, an A/D conversion module and an built-in computer system. The invention is suitable for comprehensive detection of drawbacks of pipelines with different diameters, detection of long distance pipelines, and detection of pipelines in inaccessible places. The invention has the advantages of fast and large-scale detection ability without contact, high efficiency; overcoming a plurality of limitations of the conventional non-destructive detection method; overcoming the restriction conditions of oil pollution, fouling, bending or heat insulation protective layer, judging and locating the drawbacks of the pipelines, reducing the maintenance range, avoiding unnecessary disassembly and replacement, reducing the intensity of artificial detection, and saving the human and material resource. In addition, the invention can achieve on-line monitoring, and evaluate the health condition of the element or predicts the service life of the element.

The invention discloses a device used for quick online nondestructive detection on cracks of poultry eggs on the basis of acoustic characteristic and a method thereof; the poultry egg is arranged on a supporting idler wheel; a stepping motor is connected with the supporting idler wheel and drives the supporting idler wheel; a microphone which is arranged beside the poultry egg is sequentially connected with a computer by a signal amplifier, a filter and an A/D converter; when the poultry egg rolls on a chain, different parts of the poultry egg are mechanically knocked at multi-point by a knocking rod; sound signals collected by the microphone are amplified by the signal amplifier, filtrated by the filter and converted by the A/D converter and subsequently input to the computer, thus comprehensively judging the cracking situation of the poultry eggs. The device and the method can adapt to poultry eggs with different types and different sizes, realize the classification and automatic detection of the poultry eggs during the production processing and circulation process, and can be popularized and applied to the nondestructive detection on the hardness and the maturity of agricultural products such as fruits, vegetables, and the like.

A circuit for determining characteristics of a fluid under-test is provided. The circuit includes analog-to-digital processing circuitry for interfacing with a sensor and host electronics. The analog-to-digital processing circuitry includes a frequency generator for providing stimulus to the sensor and receiving a response signal from the sensor. Conditioning circuitry for reducing analog signal offsets in the response signal and signal detection circuitry for identifying amplitude data of the response signal are provided. Further provided is analog-to-digital conversion circuitry for converting the detected amplitude data into digital form. Memory for holding calibration data and approximated fluid characteristics of the fluid under-test is included in the circuitry. The digital form of the response signal is processed in conjunction with the calibration data and approximated fluid characteristics to generate fluid characteristics of the actual fluid under-test.