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Journal articleNichita A, Zhang Y, Cegla F, 2026,
Automated image stitching of ultrasonic C-scan thickness data
, NDT & E INTERNATIONAL, Vol: 158, ISSN: 0963-8695 -
Journal articleZhang Y, Cegla F, 2026,
Quantitative evaluation of the reliability of hybrid corrosion inspection and monitoring approaches
, NDT & E INTERNATIONAL, Vol: 158, ISSN: 0963-8695 -
Journal articleChallinor C, Cegla F, 2025,
On the robustness of coded excitation in ultrasonic acquisition systems
, Ultrasonics, Vol: 155, ISSN: 0041-624XCoded excitation has been shown to be a simple yet effective technique for improving signal quality in ultrasonic active ranging applications. Despite many reported benefits, uptake of coded excitation in industrial applications to date has been minimal. The authors speculate that this can be in part attributed to a lack of understanding of the robustness of the technique in practical use. To combat this, this paper reports on research into the main mechanisms that can introduce performance degradation and describes the effect of the two most important mechanisms, referred to as symbol asymmetry and symbol misalignment. These mechanisms lower output signal quality through the introduction of unexpected signal artifacts, as well as by reducing useful signal amplitude. We show how symbol asymmetry can be introduced through hardware imperfections and the relative degradation severity associated with different imperfection types. We similarly show how symbol misalignment can be introduced when using coded excitation in non-stationary situations. As a result, we formulate the minimum hardware requirements and inspection conditions required to correctly utilise coded excitation such that users can be confident of achieving high quality outcomes. We quantitatively simulate and experimentally verify the output signal degradation across many scenarios to identify the operating conditions that need to be satisfied to ensure that degradation does not exceed an arbitrarily chosen threshold of 40 dB (the noise floor from random noise in our experimental setup).
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Journal articleRen Y, Huang M, Liu G, et al., 2025,
Decoding coupled mechanical-electrochemical responses in multi-layer batteries via generalized ultrasonic dynamics
, Energy Storage Materials, ISSN: 2405-8297Characterizing and understanding internal battery physics is essential for stability, safety, and recyclability. Ultrasound provides a non-destructive solution by encoding battery dynamics into mechanical waves. However, the complex multi-layer structure and coupled mechanical-electrochemical behaviors of commercial cells hinder standardized and physically interpretable ultrasonic testing. This study presents a unified ultrasonic framework for multi-layer pouch cells, linking wave dynamics to battery structures, materials, and states across frequency and time domains. Inspired by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, we examine structure- and state-waveform relationships of batteries under various excitation conditions, decoding ultrasonic responses related to mechanical and electrochemical factors in a generalizable manner. Using first-principles modeling and frequency sweep experiments, we identify battery-specific frequency bandstructures and wave modulation signatures tied to cell architecture and cathode chemistry, allowing mechanical discrimination of these factors in electrochemically steady states. In-operando tests demonstrate that changes in localized ultrasonic resonance associated with shifting bandstructure can map variations in battery state of charge, with the evolution of anode material stiffness as a key driving mechanism. This work establishes a physics-grounded foundation for understanding wave-battery interactions and is expected to guide the development of high-sensitivity, task-specific tools and diagnostic strategies across the in-laboratory, post-manufacture, and in-service stages of a battery’s lifecycle.
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Journal articleMroszczak M, Jones RE, Huthwaite P, et al., 2025,
Transfer learning in guided wave testing of pipes
, MECHANICAL SYSTEMS AND SIGNAL PROCESSING, Vol: 224, ISSN: 0888-3270 -
Journal articleMroszczak M, Mariani S, Huthwaite P, 2024,
Improved Limited-View Ultrasound Tomography via Machine Learning
, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ULTRASONICS FERROELECTRICS AND FREQUENCY CONTROL, Vol: 71, Pages: 1906-1914, ISSN: 0885-3010 -
Journal articleZuo P, Huthwaite P, 2024,
Guided wave tomography for quantitative thickness mapping using non-dispersive SH0 mode through geometrical full waveform inversion (GFWI)
, PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY A-MATHEMATICAL PHYSICAL AND ENGINEERING SCIENCES, Vol: 480, ISSN: 1364-5021 -
Journal articleGil B, Hall TAG, Freeman DME, et al., 2024,
Wireless implantable bioelectronics with a direct electron transfer lactate enzyme for detection of surgical site infection in orthopaedics
, Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Vol: 263, ISSN: 0956-5663Periprosthetic infection is one of the most devastating complications following orthopaedic surgery. Rapid detection of an infection can change the treatment pathway and improve outcomes for the patient. In here, we propose a miniaturized lactate biosensor developed on a flexible substrate and integrated on a small-form bone implant to detect infection. The methods for lactate biosensor fabrication and integration on a bone implant are fully described within this study. The system performance was comprehensively electrochemically characterised, including with L-lactate solutions prepared in phosphate-buffered saline and culture medium, and interferents such as acetaminophen and ascorbic acid. A proof-of-concept demonstration was then conducted with ex vivo ovine femoral heads incubated with and without exposure to Staphylococcus epidermidis. The sensitivity, current density and limit-of-detection levels achieved by the biosensor were 1.25 μA mM-1, 1.51 μA.M-1.mm-2 and 66 μM, respectively. The system was insensitive to acetaminophen, while sensitivity to ascorbic acid was half that of the sensitivity to L-lactate. In the ex vivo bone model, S. epidermidis infection was detected within 5 h of implantation, while the control sample led to no change in the sensor readings. This pioneering work demonstrates a pathway to improving orthopaedic outcomes by enabling early infection diagnosis.
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Journal articleChallinor C, Cegla F, 2024,
Pulse compression with and without matched filtering: why codes beat chirps
, NDT and E International, Vol: 147, ISSN: 0963-8695Pulse compression based excitation signals have been shown to improve signal quality in many active ranging applications without negatively impacting range resolution. Most prior work into using pulse compression presents the technique as if matched filtering is necessary to successfully achieve signal compression. Matched filtering against modulated excitation signals does result in useful information compression, however, it also suppresses information outside of the bandwidth of the transmission signal. This can distort or remove useful information in some applications, such as ultrasonic guided wave inspections, making the processing step unsuitable. In this paper, we show that when pulse compression with coded excitation is employed, a second filtering option is available for compressing the modulated information. The second option, which we have termed the sequence filter, utilises sequence elements as the template against which the filtering of coded excitation measurements is undertaken, thereby allowing compression to be achieved independent of received signal frequency content. We verify that sequence filtering successfully produces signal compression in two experimental ultrasound non-destructive testing applications where frequency modulated pulse compression was unsuitable. With both sequence filtering and matched filtering, we show signal-to-noise ratio gains in excess of 20 dB from using pulse compression.
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Journal articleWest G, Haslinger S, Bamber J, et al., 2024,
Simulation of ultrasound backscatter coefficient measurement using the finite element method
, ULTRASONICS, Vol: 143, ISSN: 0041-624X -
Journal articleSimillides Y, Huthwaite P, Kalkowski MK, et al., 2024,
A displacement-based finite element formulation for solving elastic wave problems in coupled fluid-solid media on a GPU
, Computers and Structures, Vol: 299, ISSN: 0045-7949Ultrasonic wave propagation and scattering involving both solids and fluids underpins many key configurations in non-destructive testing and underwater acoustics. The resulting interactions are highly dependent on both material parameters and geometries and are difficult and expensive to investigate experimentally. Modelling capabilities are often used to overcome this, but these are also complex and computationally expensive due to the complexity of the fluid-solid interactions. We introduce a novel explicit time-domain finite element method for simulating ultrasonic waves interacting with fluid-solid interfaces. The method is displacement-based, and relies on classical hourglassing control, in addition to a modified time-stepping scheme to damping out shear motion in an inviscid fluid. One of the key benefits of the displacement-based approach is that nodes in the fluid have the same number of degrees of freedom as those in the solid. Therefore defining a fluid-solid model is as easy as defining an all-fluid or all-solid model, avoiding the need for any special treatments at the interfaces. It is thus compatible with typical elastodynamic finite element formulations and ready for implementation on a graphical processing unit. We verified the method across a range of problems involving millions of degrees of freedom in fields such as non-destructive testing and underwater acoustics.
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Journal articleKuder I, Rock M, Jones G, et al., 2024,
An optimization approach for creating application-specific ultrasound speckle tracking algorithms
, Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, Vol: 50, Pages: 1108-1121, ISSN: 0301-5629Objective:Ultrasound speckle tracking enables in vivo measurement of soft tissue deformation or strain, providing a non-invasive diagnostic tool to quantify tissue health. However, adoption into new fields is challenging since algorithms need to be tuned with gold-standard reference data that are expensive or impractical to acquire. Here, we present a novel optimization approach that only requires repeated measurements, which can be acquired for new applications where reference data might not be readily available or difficult to get hold of.Methods:Soft tissue motion was captured using ultrasound for the medial collateral ligament (MCL) of three quasi-statically loaded porcine stifle joints, and medial ligamentous structures of a dynamically loaded human cadaveric knee joint. Using a training subset, custom speckle tracking algorithms were created for the porcine and human ligaments using surrogate optimization, which aimed to maximize repeatability by minimizing the normalized standard deviation of calculated strain maps for repeat measurements. An unseen test subset was then used to validate the tuned algorithms by comparing the ultrasound strains to digital image correlation (DIC) surface strains (porcine specimens) and length change values of the optically tracked ligament attachments (human specimens).Results:After 1500 iterations, the optimization routine based on the porcine and human training data converged to similar values of normalized standard deviations of repeat strain maps (porcine: 0.19, human: 0.26). Ultrasound strains calculated for the independent test sets using the tuned algorithms closely matched the DIC measurements for the porcine quasi-static measurements (R > 0.99, RMSE < 0.59%) and the length change between the tracked ligament attachments for the dynamic human dataset (RMSE < 6.28%). Furthermore, strains in the medial ligamentous structures of the human specimen during flexion showed a strong correlation with anterior/posterior p
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Journal articleChallinor C, Cegla F, 2024,
Alternative coded excitation for multi-channel low-power ultrasonics
, e-Journal of Nondestructive Testing, Vol: 29<jats:p>Coded excitation is a well-researched signal processing technique that employs phase modulations to improve signal quality in acquired A-scan ultrasonic timetraces. By utilising phase modulations based on sequences with favourable time-compression properties, total excitation energy can be increased. This directly improves Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) without necessitating an increase in peak output power or reducing range resolution. Most prior research into this topic has focussed on understanding how typical ultrasonic inspection systems can be improved by incorporating coded excitations. This work instead highlights the benefits of an ultrasonic inspection system that is designed especially for coded excitations.Traditional systems ensure a high SNR by using high-voltage excitations, isolation circuits and pre-amplifiers before received signal digitisation. Instead, in this work we propose the use of low-voltage transmissions amplitudes which are within the operating range of the receiver components such that receiver isolation is not required. This removes the limitation on applicable sequence lengths for coded excitation measurements. Therefore, ever increasing sequence lengths can be utilised to improve the measurement SNR without increasing signal dead-zone. Further, this opens the possibility of using different types of sequence which can achieve quasi-ideal compression from a single transmission event, and facilitates the use of quasi-orthogonality for suppressing crosstalk during simultaneous operation of multi-channel systems. Through physical experiments, we show how this low-power coded approach can be utilised to match the performance (45dB SNR) of conventional high voltage systems (200V transmission amplitude with 15dB receiver amplification) whilst using only +/-2V transmission signals (40dB reduction in peak excitation power). The ability to remove inefficient high-voltage transmission hardware by adopting this technique can open the d
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Journal articleYang Z, Chen Y, Zou F, et al., 2024,
An immersion ultrasonic testing-based research platform for studying electroplating kinetics
, ChemElectroChem, Vol: 11, ISSN: 2196-0216Electroplating is widely exploited in numerous application areas. Understanding the kinetics of electroplating, which is essentially a dynamic phenomenon, is crucial to making use of it appropriately in the real world. Currently, there exist a variety of research tools for studying electroplating kinetics, each with its own pros and cons. In this paper, we introduce a novel, immersion ultrasonic testing-based technique that carries out in situ, direct monitoring of the thickness increase of an electroplated layer. Through careful design and optimization of the measurement setup and the signal processing protocol, the measurement resolution of the technique was able to reach a sub-micron level. Via a number of demonstrative zinc plating experiments that were performed under different conditions, the measurement accuracy of the technique was thoroughly validated by a number of independent methods. All in all, the technique can become a promising alternative tool for studying the kinetics of different electroplating processes, supplementing the existing toolbox with the capability of providing a new class of information.
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Journal articleChallinor C, Pearson N, Cegla F, 2024,
Coded excitation using TOP-CS sequences for multi-channel low-power ultrasonics
, Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, Vol: 213, ISSN: 0888-3270This paper presents a low-power hardware architecture that facilitates the simultaneoustransmission and reception of ultrasonic signals when using coded excitations for ultrasonicmeasurements. With this architecture, long pseudo-periodic coded excitations, which havepreviously been unsuitable for pulse-echo measurements, can be used to produce high Signalto-Noise Ratio (SNR) results without an increase in signal dead-zone and without introducingfilter artefacts within a set measurement window. We show that a low-power system (±2 Vpeak excitation amplitude without receiver amplification) utilising such coded excitations canachieve the same level of performance as a conventional high-power system (−200 V peakexcitation amplitude with 15 dB receiver amplification) by producing 45 dB SNR measurementswhilst maintaining a high Pulse Repetition Frequency (PRF) of ≥0.5 kHz. The use of pseudoperiodic sequences to produce quasi-orthogonal sequence families is then demonstrated to allowan arbitrary number of acquisition channels to be used simultaneously with complete crosstalkremoval within a set measurement window. Therefore, the work presented here can open thedoor for the development of simplified low-power multi-channel acquisition systems withoutsacrificing system performance.
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Journal articleClarkson L, Zhang Y, Cegla F, 2024,
A comparison of ultrasonic temperature monitoring using machine learning and physics-based methods for high-cycle thermal fatigue monitoring
, Structural Health Monitoring: an international journal, Vol: 23, Pages: 1560-1577, ISSN: 1475-9217Failure of pipe network components in so-called mixing zones due to high-cycle thermal fatigue (HCTF) can occur within nuclear power plants where fluids of different thermal and hydraulic properties interact. Given that the consequences of such failures are potentially deadly, a method to monitor HCTF non-invasively in real-time is expected to be of great use. This method may be realised by a technique to determine the inaccessible temperature distribution of a component since thermal gradients drive HCTF. Previous work showed that a physics-based method called the inverse thermal modelling (ITM) method can obtain the temperature distribution from external temperature and ultrasonic time of flight (TOF) measurements. This study investigated whether the long-short-term memory (LSTM) machine learning architecture could be a faster alternative to the ITM method for data inversion. On experimental data, a 25-member ensemble of LSTM networks achieved an ensemble median root mean square error (RMSE) of 1.04°C and an ensemble median mean error of 0.194°C (both relative to a resistance temperature device measurement). These values are similar to the ITM method which achieved a RMSE of 1.04°C and a mean error of 0.196°C. The single LSTM network and the ITM method achieved a computation-to-real-world time ratio of 0.008% and 14%, respectively demonstrating that both methods can invert data in real-time. Simulation studies revealed that LSTM performance is sensitive to small differences between the training and real-world parameters leading to unacceptable errors. However, these errors can be detected via an ensemble of independent networks and, corrected by simply adding a correction factor to the TOF prior to being input into the networks. The results show that LSTM has the potential to be an alternative to the ITM method; however, the authors favour ITM for temperature distribution monitoring given its interpretability.
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Journal articleZhang Y, Dong H, Yang R, et al., 2024,
Suppression of dendrite formation via ultrasonic stimulation
, Electrochemistry Communications, Vol: 162, ISSN: 1388-2481This research introduces a chemistry-agnostic approach to achieve rapid and degradation-free battery charging via ultrasonic agitation. An ultrasonic device operating in the megahertz range was used to stimulate electrolyte flow from outside the cell. The acoustic streaming effect accelerates ion transport from the bulk electrolyte to the electrode surface and suppresses the formation of an ion depletion zone. An experimental setup was used to optically observe the formation of dendrites when the current imposed across two zinc electrodes exceeded the limiting current. Beyond this limit, diffusion alone cannot provide sufficient ions, resulting in an ion depletion zone. It was subsequently shown that dendrite formation was reduced by over 98% when 15x the limiting current was forced across the electrodes and acoustic stimulation was delivered. Furthermore, it was shown that compared to the scenario without ultrasonic stimulation, the steady state potential was also reduced by 29%, indicating much better ion exchange between the electrodes. These findings suggest that ultrasonic stimulation can be a tool for enhancing electrochemical processes such as battery charging and discharging.
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Journal articleHall T, Theodoridis K, Kohli N, et al., 2024,
Active osseointegration in an ex vivo porcine bone model
, Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, Vol: 12, ISSN: 2296-4185Achieving osseointegration is a fundamental requirement for many orthopaedic, oral, and craniofacial implants. Osseointegration typically takes three to 6 months, during which time implants are at risk of loosening. The aim of this study was to investigate whether osseointegration could be actively enhanced by delivering controllable electromechanical stimuli to the periprosthetic bone. First, the osteoconductivity of the implant surface was confirmed using an in vitro culture with murine preosteoblasts. The effects of active treatment on osseointegration were then investigated in a 21-day ex vivo model with freshly harvested cancellous bone cylinders (n = 24; Ø10 mm × 5 mm) from distal porcine femora, with comparisons to specimens treated by a distant ultrasound source and static controls. Cell viability, proliferation and distribution was evident throughout culture. Superior ongrowth of tissue onto the titanium discs during culture was observed in the actively stimulated specimens, with evidence of ten-times increased mineralisation after 7 and 14 days of culture (p < 0.05) and 2.5 times increased expression of osteopontin (p < 0.005), an adhesive protein, at 21 days. Moreover, histological analyses revealed increased bone remodelling at the implant-bone interface in the actively stimulated specimens compared to the passive controls. Active osseointegration is an exciting new approach for accelerating bone growth into and around implants.
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Journal articleHall T, Cegla F, van Arkel RJ, 2024,
Passive biotelemetric detection of tibial debonding in wireless battery-free smart knee implants
, Sensors, Vol: 24, Pages: 1-12, ISSN: 1424-8220Aseptic loosening is the dominant failure mechanism in contemporary knee replacement surgery, but diagnostic techniques are poorly sensitive to the early stages of loosening and poorly specific in delineating aseptic cases from infections. Smart implants have been proposed as a solution, but incorporating components for sensing, powering, processing, and communication increases device cost, size, and risk; hence, minimising onboard instrumentation is desirable. In this study, two wireless, battery-free smart implants were developed that used passive biotelemetry to measure fixation at the implant–cement interface of the tibial components. The sensing system comprised of a piezoelectric transducer and coil, with the transducer affixed to the superior surface of the tibial trays of both partial (PKR) and total knee replacement (TKR) systems. Fixation was measured via pulse-echo responses elicited via a three-coil inductive link. The instrumented systems could detect loss of fixation when the implants were partially debonded (+7.1% PKA, +32.6% TKA, both p < 0.001) and fully debonded in situ (+6.3% PKA, +32.5% TKA, both p < 0.001). Measurements were robust to variations in positioning of the external reader, soft tissue, and the femoral component. With low cost and small form factor, the smart implant concept could be adopted for clinical use, particularly for generating an understanding of uncertain aseptic loosening mechanisms.
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Journal articleClarkson L, Zhang Y, Cegla F, 2024,
Development of a Real-Time Ultrasonic Monitoring Tool for High-Cycle Thermal Fatigue
, 11th European Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring Ewshm 2024Pipe networks within nuclear power plants (NPPs) are susceptible to high-cycle thermal fatigue (HCTF) failures, especially in so-called mixing zones where fluids with different thermal and hydraulic properties interact. The 1998 incident at Civaux 1 NPP is a good example of such a failure and its potential consequences. Given the critical impact on the safety of these NPP components, a non-invasive method for HCTF progression monitoring in real-time is expected to be of great use. Previous ultrasonic monitoring work showed that it is possible to predict the through-thickness temperature distribution and its temporal evolution of a mild steel block to within ±2 °C, relative to a resistance temperature detector. These predictions were achieved using time-of-flight measurements from an ultrasonic transducer placed on the accessible surface with the so-called inverse thermal model (ITM) to invert the data. However, experiments to date have been limited to slow (10-minute) thermal transients at low temperatures (T < 100 °C). Given that HCTF is driven by thermal gradients, the ITM method seems promising to monitor its progression. In this work the performance of the ITM method was investigated under more realistic conditions: faster (1-minute) thermal transients at higher temperatures (≈ 250-300 °C). A special high-temperature electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) and a fast acquisition and inversion methodology were created to collect the data. The measurement set-up and the collected data will be presented in this paper.
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