Title: Non-invasive monitoring of temperature distribution inside materials with ultrasound inversion method

Authors: Ikuo Ihara, Manabu Takahashi

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Nagaoka University of Technology, 1603-1 Kamitomioka, Nagaoka, Niigata 940 2188, Japan. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Nagaoka University of Technology, 1603-1 Kamitomioka, Nagaoka, Niigata 940 2188, Japan

Abstract: A novel ultrasound inversion method for monitoring the temperature distribution inside materials being heated is presented. The method consists of an ultrasonic pulse-echo measurement and a finite difference calculation for determining a 1D temperature distribution. At first, the inversion method has been applied to a numerical model of a heated plate having a temperature gradient to verify the validity of the method. To demonstrate the practicability of the method, a steel plate of 30 mm thickness being heated by contacting with 700°C molten aluminium is evaluated. Ultrasonic pulse-echo measurements are performed for the steel during heating and the inversion method is used to determine the temperature distribution inside the steel. The internal temperature distributions determined by the ultrasound inversion almost agree with those measured using thermocouples installed in the steel.

Keywords: heated materials; intelligent systems; inverse analysis; non-invasive monitoring; temperature distribution; ultrasonic measurement; ultrasound inversion; steel plates; molten aluminium; pulse echo.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISTA.2009.025108

International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications, 2009 Vol.7 No.1, pp.80 - 91

Published online: 12 May 2009 *

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