title: A novel method to design sparse linear arrays for ultrasonic phased array.
abstract: In ultrasonic phased array testing, a sparse array can increase the resolution by enlarging the aperture without adding system complexity. Designing a sparse array involves choosing the best or a better configuration from a large number of candidate arrays. We firstly designed sparse arrays by using a genetic algorithm, but found that the arrays have poor performance and poor consistency. So, a method based on the Minimum Redundancy Linear Array was then adopted. Some elements are determined by the minimum-redundancy array firstly in order to ensure spatial resolution and then a genetic algorithm is used to optimize the remaining elements. Sparse arrays designed by this method have much better performance and consistency compared to the arrays designed only by a genetic algorithm. Both simulation and experiment confirm the effectiveness.
authors.affiliation: NDT Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China. yang-p02@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn <yang-p02@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn>
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Ke-Ren
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Shi