Ultrasonic flaw detection using EMD-based signal processing

The precise detection of flaw echoes buried in backscattefing noise caused by material microstructure is a problem of great importance in uhrasonic non-destructive testing （NDT）. In this work, empirical mode decomposition （EMD） is proposed to deal with ultrasonic signal. A time-frequency filtering method based on EMD is designed to suppress noise and enhance flaw signals. Simulated results are presented, showing that the proposed method has an excellent performance even for a very low signal-to-noise ratio （SNR）. The improvement in flaw detection was experimentally verified using stainless steel pipe sample with artificial flaws.