Dr. Jennifer E. Michaels is a Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech.  She received the Bachelor’s of Electrical Engineering degree from Georgia Tech in 1976, and then began working in the field of ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation at the Hanford Engineering Development Laboratory in Richland, Washington.  This work led to her graduate studies in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at Cornell University, where she earned the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in 1982 and 1984, respectively, and then spent a year as an IBM Postdoctoral Fellow.  From 1985 until joining Georgia Tech in 2002, she worked in industry, first as co-founder of a startup company, and later as Manager of Systems Development at Panametrics, Inc., a world leader in the development, fabrication and deployment of custom automated ultrasonic inspection systems.  She is co-director of the QUEST (Quantitative Ultrasonic Evaluation, Sensing and Testing) Laboratory at Georgia Tech, where her current research interests are structural health monitoring, nondestructive evaluation, materials characterization and measurement systems.  Current and past sponsors of her work include AFRL, AFOSR, DARPA, HSARPA, NSF and industry.  She is a member of ASNT and the Acoustical Society of America, a Senior Member of IEEE, and an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement.

Abstract

Signal Processing and Imaging with Ultrasonic Guided Waves: Goals, Challenges and Recent Progress

Ultrasonic guided waves have the potential for both rapid inspection and in situ monitoring of plate-like structures, and effective signal processing and imaging algorithms are essential to achieve necessary performance. Although guided waves can propagate long distances and still remain sensitive to damage, their dispersive nature and sensitivity to varying environmental and operational conditions offer significant challenges. This presentation addresses two guided wave applications that have recently been the subject of significant research. The first is acquisition and analysis of full or partial guided wavefield data such as can be obtained by either a scanning laser vibrometer or a scanned air-coupled transducer. This application is motivated by the need for a rapid alternative to traditional bulk wave inspections that does not require extensive teardown or liquid couplants. The second is in situ monitoring using a spatially distributed array of simple piezoelectric transducers. This application is motivated by the need for long term monitoring of critical structures to both lower maintenance costs and prevent catastrophic failures. Recent results are presented from current and past projects of the QUEST Laboratory at Georgia Tech.