Investigation of the sound field of phased array using the photoelastic visualization technique and the accurate FEM

Abstract

In this study, we tried to obtain an accurate ultrasonic sound field of the commercial phased array system. For this purpose, the experimental photoelastic ultrasonic visualization system was improved to evaluate a phased array system and the analytical special large-scale finite element method (FEM) code for ultrasonic transmission was applied. As the results, an actual sound field of phased array system was much more complicate than that of the conventional industrial assumption based on a simple superposition. One of the causes of the difference might be the accuracy of the directivity for each element in the array transducer. Thus, the combination of photoelastic visualization method and FEM analysis was useful for the accurate sound field investigation of the phased array measurement. © 2012 The Japan Institute of Metals.