Abstract

Microwave heating has been recently used as an active thermal excitation method in thermography. Within the nondestructive testing and evaluation (NDT&E) realm, this method is referred to as active microwave thermography, or AMT. In AMT, unlike other thermal excitation methods utilized in thermography, microwave heating inherently provides a nonuniform heating pattern. This is a direct result of the radiating antenna used to deliver the energy. This nonuniform pattern may result in defect detection errors (i.e., false positives and/or negatives). To reduce this potential for detection error and improve the overall robustness of the technique, a new electromagnetic system, consisting of an array of antennas which are excited by different frequencies or time-varying random phases is proposed. The experimental results presented here show that improved uniformity of the heating pattern can be obtained by the new radiating system, with results showing that a 4-element array provides a uniform thermal excitation over an area 5.5 times greater than that of a single antenna.

Department(s)

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Comments

National Science Foundation, Grant 1609470

Keywords and Phrases

Active Microwave Thermography (AMT); Frequency Division Multiplexing; Microwave Heating; Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation (NDT&E); Phased Array Antenna; Uniform Heating

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1091-5281

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2024 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2024

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