Synthetic aperture focusing technique in real-time and tandem operation for thick section steels

The authors report on a program underway at Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) to move the synthetic aperture focusing technique (SAFT) from the laboratory into the field for the purpose of inspecting light-water reactor (LWR) components. The SAFT technology was developed to produce high-resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio images of ultrasonic anomalies in materials. Other researchers have been involved in developing the 2-D or line SAFT technology, but the one thing that has limited the acceptance of 38-D SAFT is the slow processing rates. This paper describes how a special purpose processor can be used to achieve processing rates of 10 A-scans/second or larger. The tandem mode has been successfully used with SAFT but only on this materials. This paper also describes how to effectively implement the tandem mode for thick section materials