High performance acoustic three-dimensional image processing system

The reactor vessel of a fast breeder reactor (FBR) is filled with optically opaque liquid sodium, and, therefore, the ultrasonic imaging technique is useful for inspecting in-vessel structures in sodium. The authors have developed a high-speed and high-resolution three-dimensional image processing technique. For imaging in the sodium, a two-dimensional matrix transducer and the M-series transmitting signal were used. The cross correlation processing between the transmitted signal and received signal was used for enhancing the S/N ratio. The image synthesis also attempts the enhancement of resolution by the synthetic aperture focusing technique (SAFT). High-speed processing could be realized by use of parallel processing boards.