On the use of a chaotic cavity transducer in nonlinear elastic imaging.

We discuss the advantages of “chaotic cavity transducer focusing” to enhance the localization of microdamage in conjunction with nonlinear elastic wave spectroscopy methods. Chaotic cavity transducer focusing is defined as the hardware-software combination of a piezoelectric ceramic glued on a cavity of chaotic shape on the one hand with the reciprocal time reversal (or inverse filter) technique on the other hand. Additional optimization through the use of sweeps and inverse filtering techniques are discussed as well. The technique is applied to image a crack in a steel sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]