Optimum Measurement of Broadband Ultrasonic Data

The increasing use of quantitative techniques for characterizing flaws in materials often requires accurate measurement of flaw properties over a wide range of frequencies despite t he presence of noise and despite the variability of the properties of the transducer, electronics, etc. In this paper, we provide a statistical treatment of the problem of extracting the scattering amplitude of a flaw from measured data. A technique is derived for achieving extended bandwidth by combining data from two or more transducers.