The research within our group aims at advancing wave-based imaging methods building on recent progress in solid state electronics, micromachining, and computer power.
Research Themes
Rapid progress in array sensor technology means that they have now become a crucial component of many imaging systems used in radar sensing, sonar, medical diagnostics and NDE. In a similar fashion to an optical lens, the array forms an aperture which can focus and steer a beam in space.
CURRENT BEAMFORMING PROJECTS:
Advanced ultrasonic array inspection
Imaging beyond the Born Approximation: a physical approach
If imaging required less data, it would enable faster throughput, improved performance in restricted access situations and simpler, cheaper hardware. The information from images enables damage to be accurately quantified within engineering components, avoiding the need to choose between excessive conservatism and unpredicted failures. While primarily focused on NDE (non-destructive evaluation), the applications of this spread to areas including medicine, geophysics and security.
Current Limited Data Imaging Projects:
Limited data CT of Turbine Blades
Radiography of sub-sea pipelines
Full-Waveform Inversion of Guided-Wave Measurements
Automating Defect Visibility Assessment in Radiographs and Sophisticated Film Noise Modelling
From radioastronomy to optical microscopy the resolution of an image is limited by diffraction as demonstrated by Lord Rayleigh more than a century ago. Recent progress in near-field microscopy has shown that the diffraction limit can be broken leading to what is known as super resolution.
Current Super Resolution Projects:
Imaging beyond the Born Approximation: a physical approach
Sub-wavelength characterisation of defects in inaccessible regions using guided waves
Super resolution subsurface sensing
Integrated Ultrasonic Imaging for Inspection of Near-Surface Defects in Safety-Critical Components
Super Resolution Array Imaging of Small Embedded Defects within Safety-Critical Components
Whether it is a cancer mass inside the human body to be detected or the hot core of our planet to be studied, tomography can provide a unique insight into the subsurface world. By measuring the perturbation induced by the presence of an object on the free propagation of waves or particles, a map of a target material property across a slice of the object is revealed.
Current Tomography Projects:
Guided wave tomography for thickness mapping
Imaging beyond the Born Approximation: a physical approach
Super resolution subsurface imaging
Radiography of sub-sea pipelines
