Enhancement of ultrasonic C-scan images for inspection of multi-layered composite panels

One of the serious problems that make the flaw identification in a multi-layered thick composite panel more difficult is the interference effect of the upper layer. To take care of such a problem, here we propose an image enhancement approach that can get rid of such an interference effect to ultrasonic C-scan images by a normalization of the acquired signals by a reference signals, and demonstrate its performance in the experiments. Specifically, three specimens with artificial flaws are prepared and ultrasonic C-scan images are acquired experimentally to eliminate the undesired interference effect. Great successes are observed in the present study demonstrating the high potential of the proposed algorithm as a practical image enhancement tool in many practical situations.