Ultrasonics最新文献

{"title":"Rib quality assessment using quantitative ultrasound imaging of bone","authors":"MC. Herrera ,&nbsp;F. Sundblad ,&nbsp;Ari. Salmi ,&nbsp;CR. Dickerson ,&nbsp;K. Raum","doi":"10.1016/j.ultras.2026.107995","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ultras.2026.107995","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This feasibility study evaluated quantitative ultrasound imaging of bone (QUSIB) for non-ionizing assessment of rib quality in the context of breast cancer treatment. <em>In silico</em>, microcomputed tomography-based rib models simulated five-year of the effects of radiation and bisphosphonate therapy. Broadband ultrasound propagation (6-MHz center frequency, 128-element array) yielded backscatter and attenuation coefficients, which were related to structural and material parameters via univariate and partial least squares (PLS) regression analyses with 5-fold cross-validation. The strongest univariate correlations were observed for trabecular total bone volume fraction (<em>BV/TV_tb</em>) and cortical porosity with attenuation at 7–8 MHz. PLS models significantly predicted trabecular <em>BV/TV_tb</em> (R² = 0.50; p &lt; 0.001) and cortical porosity (R² = 0.58; p &lt; 0.001). Treatment-dependent spectral shifts in backscatter and attenuation coefficients confirmed sensitivity to pathological changes.</div><div><em>In-vivo</em> QUSIB measurements at the antero-lateral 4th–6th ribs and at the tibia midshaft in <em>n</em> = 10 healthy volunteers produced apparent integrated backscatter and attenuation values that closely matched <em>in-silico</em> distributions (p &gt; 0.01) and did not differ significantly from tibia measurements.</div><div>These results demonstrate that QUSIB backscatter biomarkers robustly reflect rib microstructure and treatment-induced alterations, supporting their potential for fracture-risk assessment in breast cancer patients.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23522,"journal":{"name":"Ultrasonics","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 107995"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146174738","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"LambNet-T: A lightweight path-conditional transformer autoencoder for temperature-aware baseline learning in Lamb-wave SHM","authors":"Jan Horňas,&nbsp;Ondřej Vích,&nbsp;Lenka Šedková,&nbsp;Ivan Mlch,&nbsp;Bohuslav Cabrnoch,&nbsp;Michal Král","doi":"10.1016/j.ultras.2026.107973","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ultras.2026.107973","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Reliable Lamb-wave–based Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) depends on accurate baseline selection under varying temperatures. This study presents LambNet-T, a lightweight path-conditional Transformer-based autoencoder for temperature-aware baseline learning across multiple transducer paths. LambNet-T employs Attention Pooling (AP) to generate contextual embeddings and enables robust baseline selection using Cosine Similarity (CS) with a Median-based evaluation strategy, improving diagnostic accuracy and temperature robustness in multi-path Lamb-wave SHM. Experiments on a composite panel over −10 to +50 °C used only four baseline temperatures to reflect practical constraints, with quadratic interpolation for data augmentation. LambNet-T demonstrated significantly higher training efficiency than a convolutional autoencoder (CAE-GAP). During inference, the Median of the highest path-specific CS values identified the optimal temperature-compensated baseline. The method achieved high precision (R² = 0.994 ± 0.001), outperforming both CAE-GAP and conventional Optimal Baseline Selection (OBS). Integration with an existing damage localization framework reduced impact location errors to as low as 4.12 mm. A conservative statistical filter, based on baseline selection variability, was applied to manage uncertainty. All experimental datasets are openly available for reproducibility.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23522,"journal":{"name":"Ultrasonics","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 107973"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146114346","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An analytical two-step method for precise evaluation of local resonance frequencies for internal planar defects","authors":"Honglin Yan ,&nbsp;Shuang Xu ,&nbsp;Jiarui Deng ,&nbsp;Qingping Kang ,&nbsp;Paixin Chen ,&nbsp;Ruiqi Guan ,&nbsp;Hua Zhang ,&nbsp;Kai Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.ultras.2026.107980","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ultras.2026.107980","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite the effectiveness of methods based on local defect resonance (LDR) for the nondestructive evaluation of planar defects, the physical mechanism underlying the generation of LDR remains an ongoing topic of research interest. Existing methods for interpreting the generation of LDR are based on the vibration theory and simplified boundary conditions, but they demonstrate effectiveness for LDR frequency prediction only in defects within specific parameter ranges and lack universal applicability for both near surface and internal defects. A two-step approach is proposed in this investigation to understand the generation of LDR from the perspective of wave reflection and standing wave formation. In this approach, the interaction of guided waves with defect boundaries are analyzed using the normal mode expansion method, and thereby the phase shift of reflected wave modes is obtained. On this basis, the formation of standing waves is analyzed, and a quantitative relation between the defect parameters and LDR frequency can be obtained explicitly. The shape effect on the LDR frequency is then investigated via a Rayleigh method. The proposed approach provides an insight into the generation of LDR for both near surface and internal defects, and enables the quantitative evaluation of defects with circular and elliptical shapes using the LDR frequencies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23522,"journal":{"name":"Ultrasonics","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 107980"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146120354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Limitations of the 1D inverse thermal modelling method for ultrasonic thermometry","authors":"Laurence Clarkson,&nbsp;Frederic Cegla","doi":"10.1016/j.ultras.2026.107981","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ultras.2026.107981","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Structural health monitoring often involves temperature measurement. However, traditional sensors cannot measure subsurface temperature non-invasively, making them unsuitable for monitoring temperature-driven damage mechanisms such as high-cycle thermal fatigue. This limitation arises, in part, due to effective thermal low-pass filtering caused by material properties. A previous feasibility study demonstrated that subsurface temperature can be inferred non-invasively in mild steel subjected to uniform heating. This was achieved using the ultrasonic-based inverse thermal modelling (ITM) method, which assumes the temperature of a component can be described by a 1D system.</div><div>This study investigated the behaviour of ITM under non-uniform heating applied to the ‘inaccessible’ surface of a stainless steel sample through experiments and simulations. The experimental results show that ITM over-predicts temperature by as much as 120% when the heated region is small compared with the 10<!--> <!-->mm ultrasonic beam size. In simulation, the overestimation was reduced as the size of the heating source increased, effectively making the temperature distribution more uniform across the volume through which the ultrasonic wave travels. Despite the overestimation under non-uniform heating, ITM overcomes the thermal low-pass filtering, allowing the detection of thermal transients compared with a thermocouple mounted on the ‘accessible’ surface of a component.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23522,"journal":{"name":"Ultrasonics","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 107981"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146120399","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Transcranial steering of focused ultrasound vortex with binary acoustic metasurfaces","authors":"Zhongtao Hu ,&nbsp;Xudong Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.ultras.2026.107967","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ultras.2026.107967","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Ultrasound vortices have rapidly expanded their applications to areas like particle trapping, contactless manipulation, acoustic communications. In ultrasonic imaging and therapy involving bone tissues, these vortex beams offer intriguing possibilities but transmitting them through bone (especially the skull) poses challenges. Traditional acoustic lenses were engineered to rectify skull-induced beam aberration, and their capacity was limited to generating only static ultrasound fields within the brain. To overcome this constraint, our study presents a novel method for transcranially steering focused ultrasound vortex using 3D printed binary acoustic metasurfaces (BAMs) with a thickness of 0.8 λ. We tackled the challenge of skull-induced phase aberration by computing the phase distribution via a time reversal technique, which concurrently enabled the generation of a steerable focused vortex inside an <em>ex vivo</em> human skull by adjusting the operating frequency. Both numerical and simulations experiments were conducted to validate the capabilities of BAMs. We further conducted numerical demonstrations of higher-order vortices (<span><math><mrow><mi>l</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>2</mn><mo>-</mo><mn>4</mn></mrow></math></span>) inside the skull using the BAM, confirming that the approach is extensible beyond the fundamental case. This development paves the way for designing cost-effective particle-trapping systems, facilitating clot manipulation, and applying acoustic-radiation forces and torques within or across bone structures, thus presenting a new frontier for potential biomedical applications.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23522,"journal":{"name":"Ultrasonics","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 107967"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146081422","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Multi-objective optimization of virtual source distributions for ultrafast diverging wave imaging","authors":"Zahraa Alzein ,&nbsp;Marco Crocco ,&nbsp;Daniele D. Caviglia ,&nbsp;Hervé Liebgott","doi":"10.1016/j.ultras.2026.107979","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ultras.2026.107979","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Diverging wave imaging (DWI) with coherent compounding addresses the field-of-view (FOV) limitations of ultrafast imaging by placing virtual sources (VSs) behind the transducer. The number and spatial distribution of these VSs affects both image quality and frame rate, making them of high interest. Existing approaches use deterministic placements (e.g., linear, tilted, and Archimedean-spiral distributions), which exhibit inherent trade-offs between resolution and contrast. However, the optimal placement of VSs to maximize image quality has not yet been investigated for convex arrays. In this study, we propose a multi-objective genetic algorithm to optimize VS spatial distributions with a compound mask weighting strategy — mapped from transmit apodization in synthetic aperture imaging (SAI) — to enhance beam coherence and reduce artifacts during optimization. The framework was evaluated across different numbers of VSs to quantify performance trade-offs under fewer transmission events. The proposed multi-objective framework optimizes two PSF-based metrics, namely the Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) and the Peak Sidelobe Level (PSL). Then, image-quality metrics, such as contrast ratio (CR) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), are computed a posteriori as independent validation measures on the reconstructed images. In both simulations and experimental trials, the optimized VS distributions achieved up to a 50% reduction in FWHM and a 60% improvement in CR compared to deterministic methods, while preserving these gains even with reduced transmission events.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23522,"journal":{"name":"Ultrasonics","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 107979"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146174320","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A physics-informed eigenfilter for artifact removal in ultrasonic scanning videos for structural inspection","authors":"Chengyang Huang,&nbsp;Francesco Lanza di Scalea","doi":"10.1016/j.ultras.2026.107992","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ultras.2026.107992","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Artifact suppression in industrial ultrasound videos is critical for enhancing the visibility of weak structural features such as flaws. Traditional approaches such as frequency-based filtering and baseline subtraction are often limited by assumptions of perfectly separated signal components or fixed spatiotemporal alignment, which rarely hold in practice. More recent studies for artifact removal in medical ultrasound have considered eigenspace filtering that relies on the different spatiotemporal coherence between the consistent artifacts (clutter in medical imaging) and the transient signals of interest. This paper adapts the eigenfiltering approach to industrial wheel inspection system implementing a Synthetic Aperture Focus Technique (SAFT) applied to flaw imaging in railroad rails using a Rolling Search Unit (RSU). The paper clarifies key aspects of eigenfiltering applied to industrial ultrasound videos. First, it is shown that the eigenfilter effectiveness primarily stems from the large spatiotemporal autocorrelation (rather than cross-correlation) of the pseudo-stationary artifact reflections compared to the small autocorrelation of the transient flaw reflections. In addition, to address the challenges of shifting artifact positions during a scan (a very common occurrence in practical tests), the paper proposes a novel recursive eigenfilter with rectification that is different from traditional eigenfiltering. This recursive algorithm leverages a nonnegativity constraint consistent with the physics of ultrasound imaging, which iteratively reshapes the eigenspace to optimally suppress the spatiotemporally correlated artifact reflections while highlighting the uncorrelated flaw reflections. The algorithm offers excellent convergence. Experimental results obtained from RSU scanning of both artificial and natural rail flaws demonstrate outstanding filtering performance in the presence of strong artifacts. This filtering approach is widely applicable to many imaging applications involving a scanning setup.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23522,"journal":{"name":"Ultrasonics","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 107992"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146174319","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Study on frequency tunable resonators via variable mass","authors":"Zitong Mai,&nbsp;Xiping He,&nbsp;Maiwei Liao,&nbsp;Zhibo Li","doi":"10.1016/j.ultras.2026.107997","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ultras.2026.107997","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study proposes a frequency tunable ultrasonic resonator based on a variable mass method, in which a metal ring, i.e., a tuning frequency ring (TFR) is mounted on the resonator. The resonant frequency of the resonator is adjusted by altering the position of the TFR, which introduces changes in both inertia and stiffness. LTspice were conducted to investigate the effects of the TFR’s size, material, and position on the resonant frequency, with experimental measurements further validating the results. Contrary to the conventional belief that adding mass lowers the frequency, the study reveals that placing the TFR near the displacement node can increase the resonant frequency. The results also demonstrate that the tuning range of the system can be controlled by modifying the TFR’s geometry and material properties. For a resonator with a resonant frequency of 28  kHz, when the mass of the TFR is about 36  g, studies show that the maximum tunable frequency range is 9  kHz. Based on the energy method, the equivalent mass and stiffness of the resonator were calculated using the SECM (Segmented Equivalent Circuit Model) and cubic spline interpolation, explaining the physical mechanism of frequency tuning using the variable mass method, providing a practical solution for achieving wide-range frequency tuning in ultrasonic resonators.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23522,"journal":{"name":"Ultrasonics","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 107997"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146158575","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Lightweight frameworks for real-time crack monitoring in civil infrastructure","authors":"Vindhyesh Pandey,&nbsp;S.S. Mishra","doi":"10.1016/j.ultras.2026.107970","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ultras.2026.107970","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cracks in concrete buildings, pavements and bridges are important signs of structural deterioration and present serious concerns to integrity and safety. Tradionally, manual inspection has been in use to detect the cracks which is labour-intensive, subjective and prone to errors. Recently, researchers have evolved an advanced automated techniques such as YOLO (You Only Look Once), to overcome the manual errors. Continuous refinements have led to the developments of sophisticated versions YOLOv4 to YOLOv11 in the YOLO series. This study suggests a customisation of YOLOv11, for the purpose of its quickness, high accuracy and recall. Using data augmentation, hyperparameter optimisation and transfer learning on a composite dataset of concrete crack images, this model is specifically customized for crack detection. Based on experimental and publicly accessible data like SDNET2018 (Structural Defects Network), this customized version outperforms baseline versions YOLOv5, YOLOv8, YOLOv9, YOLOv10 and YOLOv11. An mAP50 (mean Average Precision) value of 68.6% is achieved which is 3.47% higher as compared to YOLOv11. Similarly, a precision of 80.8% and recall of 63.6% are achieved. The study provides 50, 100, 200, 300 and 400 epochs for training and validation. The 100 layers and 6.3 GFLOPs (Giga Floating Point Operations Per Second) of this model are also very less compared to other given models which is an indicator of less complex model. This model has proved computationally efficient and suitable for real-time applications and robust to challenging conditions such as low contrast and complex backgrounds, making it a valuable tool for structural health monitoring.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23522,"journal":{"name":"Ultrasonics","volume":"162 ","pages":"Article 107970"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146024100","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Validating sideband peak count-index (SPC-I) technique as a hybrid linear/nonlinear ultrasonic technique through numerical modeling and experiment","authors":"Guangdong Zhang ,&nbsp;Meng Wang ,&nbsp;Othmane Achouham ,&nbsp;Umar Amjad ,&nbsp;Hamad Alnuaimi ,&nbsp;Charfeddine Mechri ,&nbsp;Rachid EI Guerjouma ,&nbsp;Tribikram Kundu","doi":"10.1016/j.ultras.2026.107966","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ultras.2026.107966","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The sideband peak count–index (SPC-I) technique has been widely used to assess material nonlinearity. However, its ability to capture true nonlinear responses of materials and structures has not convinced some researchers yet. This is because SPC-I variations can be generated by both linear scattering effects and nonlinear responses. Since changes in linear scattering modes can also influence SPC-I values, it is sometimes difficult to determine whether the observed variations stem from material nonlinearity or purely from linear scatterings. This work investigates whether SPC-I is sensitive to the variation in material nonlinearity. It also gives clear guidelines on how the upper and lower bounds of the moving threshold line should be set for capturing the linear and nonlinear variations separately, or together as a hybrid technique. Numerical simulations are conducted using an isotropic nonlinear elastic material (a hyperelastic material) modeled as a “Murnaghan material” characterized by second- and third-order elastic constants (SOECs and TOECs). Linear elastic (classic theory of linear elasticity) and nonlinear elastic plates are excited at different amplitudes for comparison and the amplification factor (AF) for these excitations is defined as the ratio of the input ultrasonic excitation to its baseline value (the first input excitation value). Numerical results demonstrate that for different AF values, SPC-I computed from normalized spectral plots remains constant for linear materials but varies for nonlinear materials. This trend is also observed for nonlinear elastoplastic materials in another sets of numerical modeling. Experimental measurements on aluminum and carbon fiber composite plates confirm the findings of the numerical modeling based observations that SPC-I can capture the<!--> <!-->nonlinear responses, reinforcing its significance in material characterization and damage detection. Finally, this capability of SPC-I is used for solving a real-world structural health monitoring (SHM) problem – monitoring bolt-loosening – where SPC-I responses and resonance frequency shifts are shown to follow similar trends. Both techniques are capable of tracking evolving contact conditions from bolt loosening while the SPC-I technique is easier to implement.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23522,"journal":{"name":"Ultrasonics","volume":"162 ","pages":"Article 107966"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146020080","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}