• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.27-35
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• 2005

Ultrasonic inspection methods are widely used for detecting flaws in materials. The signal analysis step plays a crucial part in the data interpretation process. A number of signal processing methods have been proposed to classify ultrasonic flaw signals. One of the more popular methods involves the extraction of an appropriate set of features followed by the use of a neural network for the classification of the signals in the feature spare. This paper describes an alternative approach which uses the least mean square (LMS) method and exportation maximization (EM) algorithm with the model based deconvolution which is employed for classifying nondestructive evaluation (NDE) signals from steam generator tubes in a nuclear power plant. The signals due to cracks and deposits are not significantly different. These signals must be discriminated to prevent from happening a huge disaster such as contamination of water or explosion. A model based deconvolution has been described to facilitate comparison of classification results. The method uses the space alternating generalized expectation maximiBation (SAGE) algorithm ill conjunction with the Newton-Raphson method which uses the Hessian parameter resulting in fast convergence to estimate the time of flight and the distance between the tube wall and the ultrasonic sensor. Results using these schemes for the classification of ultrasonic signals from cracks and deposits within steam generator tubes are presented and showed a reasonable performances.