PULSE COMPRESSION TECHNIQUE CONSIDERING VELOCITY DISPERSION OF GUIDED WAVE.

An improved pulse compression technique was developed for long range testing using dispersive guided waves. This technique improves signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the guided wave signals and compensates for the wave distortion caused by dispersion characteristics of the guided wave. A fast calculation algorism was designed. It consists of integrations of both cross-correlation for pulse compression and compensation of velocity dispersion in wave number domain. Efficiency of the technique was verified experimentally, in which the results showed both spatial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio were improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]