Analysis and denoising of electric noise in phased array ultrasonic testing system

Abstract

Phased array ultrasonic testing (PAUT) is an advanced technique used for non-destructive testing (NDT) to detect and assess the integrity of materials or structures. In composite materials with significant acoustic attenuation, electrical noise significantly impacts PAUT detection accuracy, highlighting a crucial issue. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of electrical noise, explains the relationship between electrical noise and inspection parameters, and proposes recommendations to reduce it. A time-varying filter empirical mode decomposition (TVF-EMD) joint wavelet thresholding method is proposed for denoising electrical noise after time-corrected gain (TCG). The ultrasonic echo signal goes through TVF-EMD decomposition, resulting in intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). Energy entropy is utilized to identify the signal-dominant IMFs, and wavelet thresholding is applied to further reduce noise within these selected IMFs. The proposed method effectively removes noise and ensures signal integrity by validating simulated and experimental signals.