Bruce Thompson: Adventures and advances in ultrasonic backscatter

Over the course of his professional career Dr. R. Bruce Thompson published several hundred articles on non-destructive evaluation, the majority dealing with topics in ultrasonics. One longtime research interest of Dr. Thompson, with applications both to microstructure characterization and defect detection, was backscattered grain noise in metals. Over a 20 year period he led a revolving team of staff members and graduate students investigating various aspects of ultrasonic backscatter. As a member of that team I had the privilege of working along side Dr. Thompson for many years, serving as a sort of Dr. Watson to Bruce's Sherlock Holmes. This article discusses Dr. Thompson's general approaches to modeling backscatter, the research topics he chose to explore to systematically elucidate a better understanding of the phenomena, and the many contributions to the field achieved under his leadership. The backscatter work began in earnest around 1990, motivated by a need to improve inspections of aircraft engin...

[1]  P. Panetta.  Backscattering and attenuation during the propagation of ultrasonic waves in duplex titanium alloys , 1999 .

[2]  R. B. Thompson,et al.  Use of Electron Backscatter Diffraction in Understanding Texture and the Mechanisms of Backscattered Noise Generation in Titanium Alloys , 1998 .

[3]  I. Yalda-Mooshabad,et al.  Backscattered microstructural noise in ultrasonic toneburst inspections , 1994 .

[4]  Y. Han.  Relationship between the ultrasonic grain noise and microstructure in two-phase microstructures , 1994 .

[5]  J. H. Rose.  Ultrasonic backscatter from microstructure , 1992 .

[6]  J. Mittleman.  Ultrasonic scattering from decorated grain boundaries , 1995 .

[7]  R. B. Thompson.  Interpretation of Auld's electromechanical reciprocity relation via a one-dimensional example , 1994 .

[8]  R. B. Thompson,et al.  Ultrasonic backscattering in duplex microstructures: Theory and application to titanium alloys , 1997 .

[9]  Frank J. Margetan,et al.  Predicting ultrasonic grain noise in polycrystals: A Monte Carlo model , 1996 .

[10]  Ultrasonic Grain Noise Modeling: Recent Applications to Engine Titanium Inspections , 1997 .

[11]  R. B. Thompson,et al.  ATTENUATION OF ULTRASONIC WAVES IN CUBIC METALS HAVING ELONGATED, ORIENTED GRAINS , 1992 .

[12]  P. J. Howard,et al.  Ultrasonic Noise and the Volume of the Ultrasonic Pulse , 1996 .

[13]  R. B. Thompson,et al.  Angular dependence of ultrasonic wave propagation in a stressed, orthorhombic continuum: Theory and application to the measurement of stress and texture , 1986 .

[14]  R. B. Thompson,et al.  Simultaneous Measurement of Grain Size and Shape from Ultrasonic Backscattering Measurements Made from a Single Surface , 2003 .

[15]  B. Auld.  General electromechanical reciprocity relations applied to the calculation of elastic wave scattering coefficients , 1979 .

[16]  R. B. Thompson,et al.  Detectability of Small Flaws in Advanced Engine Alloys , 1993 .

[17]  P. Haldipur.  Material characterization of nickel-based super alloys through ultrasonic inspection , 2006 .

[18]  R. B. Thompson,et al.  Computational Study of Grain Scattering Effects in Ultrasonic Measurements , 2003 .

[19]  R. B. Thompson,et al.  A model relating ultrasonic scattering measurements through liquid–solid interfaces to unbounded medium scattering amplitudes , 1983 .

[20]  Linxiao Yu.  Understanding and improving ultrasonic inspection of jet-engine titanium alloy , 2004 .

[21]  R. B. Thompson,et al.  Use of elastodynamic theories in the stochastic description of the effects of microstructure on ultrasonic flaw and noise signals , 2002 .