Enhancement of the selectivity of closed cracks in nonlinear ultrasonic imaging using amplitude difference phased array

Subharmonic waves realize a high selectivity for closed cracks. However, when a short-burst wave is used to achieve a high temporal resolution, not only closed cracks but also linear scatterers appear in the subharmonic image owing to leakage in frequency filtering. They are ghosts that degrade the selectivity for closed crack in the subharmonic image. Here, we propose an amplitude difference phased array (ADPA), where the ghosts are eliminated by subtracting a subharmonic image at a small input multiplied by the input amplitude ratio from that at a large input. We verified the ADPA method by a two-dimensional simulation based on the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method with damped double nodes (DDNs) for subharmonic imaging of closed cracks. Furthermore, the ADPA method was experimentally verified in a closed-crack specimen.