Dispersive MUSIC algorithm for Lamb wave phased array

By controlling the excitation time delay on each element, the conventional phased array can physically focus signals transmitted by different elements on a desired point in turn. An alternative and time-saving strategy is that every element takes turns to transmit the excitation and the remaining elements receive the corresponding response signals, which is known as the full matrix capture (FMC) method for data acquisition, and then let the signals virtually focus on every desired point by post-processing technique. In this study, based on the FMC, a dispersive multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm for Lamb wave phased array is developed to locate defects. The virtual time reversal is implemented to back propagate the wave packets corresponding to the desired focusing point and a window function is adopted to adaptively isolate the desired packets from the other components. Then those wave packets are forward propagated to the original focusing point at a constant velocity. For every potential focusing point and all receivers, the virtual array focuses the signals from all transmitters so as to obtain the focusing signals. The MUSIC algorithm with the obtained focusing signals is adopted to achieve Lamb wave imaging. Benefiting from the post-processing operations, the baseline subtraction as well as the estimation for the number of the scattering sources is no longer required in the proposed algorithm. Experiments on an aluminum plate with three artificial defects and a compact circular PZT array are implemented and the results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed algorithm.