Development of ultrasonic wave inversion methods

发达国家的基础设施正在迅速老化，更换成本往往令人望而却步。在医学成像方面，致力于在临床环境中使用医学超声，以简化骨质疏松症等疾病的诊断并减少对电离辐射的暴露。在这种背景下，超声无损评估和医学超声的研究将在未来几十年带来重大创新。 拟议的研究计划旨在开发超越简单缺陷检测的方法，并能够表征缺陷和被检查介质的材料特性。这项研究计划中提出的项目将考虑在无损评估和医学超声方面的应用。例如，在骨质量评估方面，目前的黄金标准是双能X射线吸收法(DXA)。DXA使患者暴露在电离辐射下，只对骨密度敏感，通常在医院进行。另一方面，超声波对传播介质的所有材料性质都很敏感，是非电离的，可以在临床环境中应用。利用超声体波和超声导波的反演方法将被开发用于骨质量评估。有趣的是，这两种反演方法也将应用于无损检测应用：非均匀材料表征和胶粘剂质量评估。最后，利用人工智能对模拟数据进行训练，对相控阵超声检测过程中采集到的散射波场进行反演。该研究计划将在很大程度上利用贝兰格教授的实验室中已有的最先进的模拟工具和实验室仪器。 培训计划和研究团队环境将有助于培养3名博士生和3名MASC学生，成为超声技术的下一代创新者。加拿大已经是这一领域的全球主要参与者，在全国各地建立了多家设备制造商和服务提供商。在这项研究计划中培训的高素质人员将具有该行业非常理想的技能。

Infrastructure in developed countries is aging rapidly, and more often than not, the cost of replacement is prohibitive. In medical imaging, significant efforts are dedicated to the use medical ultrasound in clinical settings in order to simplify the diagnosis of diseases such as osteoporosis and to reduce exposure to ionizing radiation. In this context, research in ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation and medical ultrasound will lead to major innovations over the next couple of decades. The proposed research program aims at developing methods for going beyond simple defect detection and enabling the characterization of flaws and the material properties of the inspected medium. The projects proposed in this research program will consider applications in nondestructive evaluation and medical ultrasound. For example, in bone quality assessment, the current gold standard is dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). DXA exposes patients to ionizing radiation, is only sensitive to bone mineral density and is typically performed in hospitals. On the other hand, ultrasonic waves are sensitive to all of the material properties of the medium inside which they are propagating, are non-ionizing and can be applied in a clinical setting. Inversion methods using ultrasonic bulk waves and ultrasonic guided waves will be developed for bone quality assessment. Interestingly, both inversion methods will also be applied to nondestructive testing applications: inhomogeneous material characterization and adhesive bond quality assessment. Finally, the scattered wave field acquired during phased array ultrasonic testing will be inverted using artificial intelligence trained on simulated data. The research program will heavily leverage state-of-the-art simulation tools and laboratory instruments that are already available in Prof. Belanger's laboratory. The training plan and the research group environment will help train 3 PhD students and 3 MASc students to become the next generation of innovators in ultrasonic technologies. Canada is already a major global player in this field, with multiple equipment manufacturers and service providers established throughout the country. The highly qualified personnel trained in this research program will have highly desirable skills for this industry.