Optical generation,detection and non-destructive testing applications of terahertz waves

Optoelectronic terahertz generation and detection play a key role in the applications of non-destructive testing,which involves different areas such as physics,biological,material science,imaging,explosions detection,astronomy applications,semiconductor technology and superconductiong electronics. In this article,we present a reviewof the principle and performance of typical terahertz sources,detectors and non-destructive testing applications. On this basis,the newdevelopment and trends of terahertz radiation detectors are also discussed.

Compressed sensing and Otsu's method based binary CT image reconstruction technique in non-destructive detection

This paper tries to address the problem of binary CT image reconstruction in non-destructive detection with an algorithm based on compressed sensing(CS) and Otsu's method, which could reconstruct binary CT image of test object from incomplete detection data. According to binary CT image characteristics, we employ Splitbregman method based on L1/2regularization to solve piecewise constant region reconstruction. To improve the reconstructed image quality from incomplete detection data, we utilize a priori knowledge and Otsu's method as the optimization constraint. In our study, we make numerical simulation to investigate our proposed method,and compare reconstructed results from different reconstruction methods. Finally, the experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method could effectively reduce noise and suppress artifacts, and reconstruct high-quality binary image from incomplete detection data.

The Research Progress of Nondestructive Testing Technology in the Detection of Egg Quality

[Objective]The aim was to improve the quality of the egg in favour of producers and business operators according to the market demand to take scientific feeding and management.[Methods]This paper discussed the research progress of using machine vision,optical properties,and acoustic resonance technology in the egg quality nondestructive testing. [Results]Egg quality indicators directly affect their edible quality and quality levels. [Conclusion]Egg quality test has practical value and practical significance.

Multi-Energy Gamma-Ray Attenuations for Non-Destructive Detection of Hazardous Materials

We present a non-destructive method (NDM) to identify minute quantities of high atomic number (Z) elements in containers such as passenger baggage, goods carrying transport trucks, and environmental samples. This method relies on the fact that photon attenuation varies with its energy and properties of the absorbing medium. Low-energy gamma-ray intensity loss is sensitive to the atomic number of the absorbing medium, while that of higher-energies vary with the density of the medium. To verify the usefulness of this feature for NDM, we carried out simultaneous measurements of intensities of multiple gamma rays of energies 81 to 1408 keV emitted by sources 133Ba (half-life = 10.55 y) and 152Eu (half-life = 13.52 y). By this arrangement, we could detect minute quantities of lead and copper in a bulk medium from energy dependent gamma-ray attenuations. It seems that this method will offer a reliable, low-cost, low-maintenance alternative to X-ray or accelerator-based techniques for the NDM of high-Z materials such as mercury, lead, uranium, and transuranic elements etc.

Pulsed Eddy Current Non-destructive Testing and Evaluation:A Review

Pulsed eddy current （PEC） non-destructive test- ing and evaluation （NDT＆E） has been around for some time and it is still attracting extensive attention from researchers around the globe, which can be witnessed through the reports reviewed in this paper. Thanks to its richness of spectral components, various applications of this technique have been proposed and reported in the lit- erature covering both structural integrity inspection and material characterization in various industrial sectors. To support its development and for better understanding of the phenomena around the transient induced eddy currents, attempts for its modelling both analytically and numeri- cally have been made by researchers around the world. This review is an attempt to capture the state-of-the-art development and applications of PEC, especially in the last 15 years and it is not intended to be exhaustive. Future challenges and opportunities for PEC NDT＆E are also presented.

Non-destructive Evaluation of Composite Pressure Vessel by Using FBG Sensors

In recent years, advanced composite structures are used extensively in many industries such as aerospace, aircraft, automobile, pipeline and civil engineering. Reliability and safety are crucial requirements posed by them to the advanced composite structures be- cause of their harsh working conditions. Therefore, as a very important measure, structural health monitoring （SHM） in-service is deft- nitely demanded for ensuring their safe working in-situ. In this paper, fiber Bragg grating （FBG） sensors are surface-mounted on the hoop and in the axial directions of a FRP pressure vessel to monitor the strain status during its pressurization. The experimental results show that the FBG sensors could be used to monitor the strain development and determine the ultimate failure strain of the composite pressure vessel.

Identification of plasma microRNA-21 as a biomarker for early detection and chemosensitivity of non-small cell lung cancer

Studies have shown cell-free microRNA(miRNA) circulating in the serum and plasma with specific expression in cancer,indicating the potential of using miRNAs as biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and therapy.This study was to investigate whether plasma miRNA-21(miR-21) can be used as a biomarker for the early detection of non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC) and to explore its association with clinicopathologic features and sensitivity to platinum-based chemotherapy.We used real-time RT-PCR to investigate the expression of miR-21 in the plasma of 63 NSCLC patients and 30 healthy controls and correlated the findings with early diagnosis,pathologic parameters,and treatment.Thirty-five patients(stages IIIB and IV) were evaluable for chemotherapeutic responses:11 had partial response(PR);24 had stable and progressive disease(SD+PD).Plasma miR-21 was significantly higher in NSCLC patients than in age-and sex-matched controls(P<0.001).miR-21 was related to TNM stage(P<0.001),but not related to age,sex,smoking status,histological classification,lymph node status,and metastasis(all P>0.05).This marker yielded a receiver operating characteristic(ROC) curve area of 0.775(95% CI:0.681-0.868) with 76.2% sensitivity and 70.0% specificity.Importantly,miR-21 plasma levels in PR samples were several folds lower than that in SD plus PD samples(P=0.049),and were close to that in healthy controls(P=0.130).Plasma miR-21 can serve as a circulating tumor biomarker for the early diagnosis of NSCLC and is related to the sensitivity to platinum-base chemotherapy.

Piezoelectric Actuator/Sensor Wave Propagation Based Nondestructive Active Monitoring Method of Concrete Structures

In order to monitor the basic mechanical properties and interior damage of concrete structures,the piezoelectric actuator/sensor based wave propagation method was investigated experimentally in the laboratory using a specifically designed test setup.The energy attenuation of stress waves was measured by the relative index between the output voltage of sensors and the excitation voltage at the actuator.Based on the experimental results of concrete cube and cylinder specimens,the effect of excitation frequencies,excitation amplitude,wave propagation paths and the curing age on the output signals of sensors are evaluated.The results show that the relative voltage attenuation coefficient RVAC is an effective indicator for measuring the attenuation of stress waves through the interior of concrete.

Non-destructive experimental testing and modeling of electrical impedance behavior of untreated and treated ultra-soft clayey soils

The characterization of ultra-soft clayey soil exhibits extreme challenges due to low shear strength of such material.Hence,inspecting the non-destructive electrical impedance behavior of untreated and treated ultra-soft clayey soils gains more attention.Both shear strength and electrical impedance were measured experimentally for both untreated and treated ultra-soft clayey soils.The shear strength of untreated ultra-soft clayey soil reached 0.17 kPa for 10% bentonite content,while the shear strengths increased to 0.27 kPa and 6.7 kPa for 10% bentonite content treated with 2% lime and 10% polymer,respectively.The electrical impedance of the ultra-soft clayey soil has shown a significant decrease from 1.6 kΩ to 0.607 kΩ when the bentonite content increased from 2% to 10% at a frequency of 300 kHz.The10%lime and 10% polymer treatments have decreased the electrical impedances of ultra-soft clayey soil with 10%bentonite from 0.607 kΩ to 0.12 kΩ and 0.176 kΩ,respectively,at a frequency of 300 kHz.A new mathematical model has been accordingly proposed to model the non-destructive electrical impedancefrequency relationship for both untreated and treated ultra-soft clayey soils.The new model has shown a good agreement with experimental data with coefficient of determination（R;）up to 0.99 and root mean square error（RMSE） of 0.007 kΩ.

Non-destructive Evaluation of Absolute Stress in Steel Members Using Shear-Wave Spectroscopy

Non-destructive measurement of absolute stress in steel members can provide useful information to optimize the design of steel structures and allow the safety of existing structures to be evaluated.This paper investigates the non-destructive capability of ultrasonic shear-wave spectroscopy in absolute stress evaluation of steel members.The effect of steel-member stress on the shear-wave amplitude spectrum is investigated,and a method of absolute stress measurement is proposed.Specifically,the process for evaluating absolute stress using shear-wave spectroscopy is summarized.Two steel members are employed to investigate the relationship between the stress and the frequency in shear-wave echo amplitude spectrum.The H-beam loaded by the universal testing machine is evaluated by the proposed method and the traditional strain gauge method for verification.The results show that the proposed method is effective and accurate for determining absolute stress in steel members.

Non-Destructive Imaging of Water Permeation through Cementitious Materials Using MRI

In this study, water permeation through cementitious materials was observed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The influence of cement type on the magnetic resonance signal was studied subsequent to determining the parameters required for imaging. Consequently, adequate imaging of water permeating through hardened cement paste (HCP) made with white Portland cement was achieved, while water permeation through ordinary Portland cement-based HCP yielded poor signal. HCPs maintained at various levels of relative humidity (RH) were observed, and the signal was detected only from those maintained at an RH of higher than 85%. The water permeation depths in HCP were observed by using MRI, and the measured depths were compared to those measured via a spraying water detector on the split surface of the specimens. As a result, good agreement was confirmed between the two methods. Additionally, MRI was applied to concrete specimens;although it was found that water was not detected when a lightweight aggregate was used, water permeation through concrete with limestone aggregate was detectable via MRI. MRI will help in understanding how water permeation causes and accelerates concrete deteriorations such as rebar corrosion and freezing and thawing.

Rapid and Non-destructive Prediction of Protein Content in Peanut Varieties Using Near-infrared Hyperspectral Imaging Method

This study was undertaken to investigate the feasibility of near-infrared(NIR) hyperspectral imaging(1 000–2 500 nm) for non-destructive and quantitative prediction of protein content in peanut kernels. Partial least squares regression(PLSR) calibration model was established between the spectral data extracted from the hyperspectral images and the reference measured protein content values, with the coefficient of determination of prediction(R_P^2) of 0.885 and root mean square error of prediction(RMSEP) of 0.465%.Regression coefficients(RC) from PLSR analysis were used to identify the most essential wavelengths that had the greatest influence on changes in the protein content. Eight optimal wavelengths were selected by RC and its corresponding simplified RC-PLSR prediction model was also obtained, showing better performance with a higher R_P^2 of 0.870 and a lower RMSEP of 0.494%. The results indicate that hyperspectral imaging with PLSR analysis can be used as a rapid and non-destructive method for predicting protein content in peanut.

NON-DESTRUCTIVE PAVEMENT LAYER THICKNESS MEASUREMENT USING EMPIRICAL MODE DECOMPOSITION WITH GPR

Ground Penetrating Radar(GPR) is an effective Non-Destructive Testing(NDT) technique for highway pavement surveys, which is able to acquire continuous pavement data compared with traditional core drilling method. In this study, we proposed an accurate and efficient method to estimate the thickness of each pavement layer using an air-coupled GPR system. For this work, the main difficulties are estimating each pavement layer's time delay and dielectric constant. We first give the basic signal model for pavement evaluation, and then present an Intrinsic Mode Functions(IMFs) product detector to determine each pavement layer's time delay. This method is based on Empirical Mode Decomposition(EMD), which is an adaptive signal decomposition procedure and proved to be suitable for suppressing noises in GPR signal. The dielectric constant was determined by metal reflection measurement. The laboratory and highway experiments illustrate that the proposed thickness estimation method yields reasonable result, thus meets the requirements of practical highway pavement survey with massive GPR data.

A Novel Uniplanar Multi-Electrode Capacitive Sensor for In-Situ Weathering Damage Detection of Nonmetallic Materials

A uniplanar capacitive sensor with 5-electrodes on one plane substrate and a large reflector electrode,was designed to get the corresponding capacitance information for weathering damage detection of non-metallic materials exposed to a service environment.A 2-D finite-element method was employed to simulate the electric potential distribution and capacitance measurements for the sensor.2 marble slabs,one was healthy and the other was notched,were experimentally detected.Both the simulation and the preliminary experimental results show that the measured capacitances decrease after weathering damage occurs in nonmetallic material.The reflector can enlarge the sensitive depth.The weathering assessment of nonmetallic materials can be done by processing the measured capacitances.The proposed approach can effectively detect the weathering damage of nonmetallic material and can be practically used for in-situ weathering damage evaluation.

A Simple and Rapid Method for the Detection of Non-Ionic Surfactants

A spectrophotometric approach for the detection of non-ionic surfactant (Triton X-100) has been proposed in this paper. This method does not involve extraction of the ion-associate with harmful solvents, but employs adhesion of the ion-association of potassium/non-ionic surfactants complex and tetraphenylporphyrin tetrasulfonic acid obtained by vigorous shaking. The adhered ion-associate was dissolved with water and its absorbance was measured. The sensitivity for Triton X-100 was determined to be 0.146 (expressed as absorbance of 1 mg/L solution). The adhesion tendency of ion-associate was found to be dependent on the water contact angle, which in turn was influenced by a high adhesion of the ion-associate and by low blank values. In this respect, a tetrafluo-roethylene vessel was found to be the most suitable for the detection of non-ionic surfactants. This spectrophotometrical method is simply and rapidly performed by a procedure based on mechanical shaking and can be employed to detect non-ionic surfactants containing more than 7 polyethylene oxide units.

Non-coherent sequence detection scheme for satellite-based automatic identification system

The satellite-based automatic identification system (AIS) receiver has to encounter the frequency offset caused by the Doppler effect and the oscillator instability. This paper proposes a non-coherent sequence detection scheme for the satellite-based AIS signal transmitted over the white Gaussian noise channel. Based on the maximum likelihood estimation and a Viterbi decoder, the proposed scheme is capable of tolerating a frequency offset up to 5% of the symbol rate. The complexity of the proposed scheme is reduced by the state-complexity reduction, which is based on per-survivor processing. Simulation results prove that the proposed non-coherent sequence detection scheme has high robustness to frequency offset compared to the relative scheme when messages collision exists.

The non-destructive threshold of the graphite surface by STM in the ultra-fast pulse mode

In this paper single ultra-fast voltage pulses are introduced to the Pt/Ir tip of a scanning tunnelling microscope （STM）, and the non-destructive threshold of the graphite surface is studied systematically in a wide range of pulse durations （from 104 to 8 ns）. Considering the waveform distortion of the pulses at the tunnelling region, this paper gives the corrected threshold curve of pulse amplitude depending on pulse duration. A new explanation of threshold power has been suggested and fits the experimental results well.

Non-destructive study of fruits using grating-based X-ray imaging

Grating-based X-ray imaging can make use of conventional tube sources to provide absorption, refraction and scattering contrast images from a single set of projection images efficiently. In this paper, a fresh cherry tomato and a dried umeboshi are imaged by using X-ray Talbot–Lau interferometer. The seed distribution in the scattering image of the cherry tomato, and the wrinkles of epicarp in the refraction image of the umeboshi, are shown distinctly. The refraction and scattering images provide more information on subtle features than the absorption image. Also, the contrast-to-noise ratio values show distinguishing capacity of the three kinds of imaging techniques. The results confirm that grating-based X-ray imaging is of great potential in non-destructive fruit testing.