Patent ID: 11927437
Assignee: EVIDENT SCIENTIFIC, INC.
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 15:
16. A method of measuring a tube, the method comprising:
acoustically coupling an ultrasonic probe to a tube outer surface, the probe configured to emit an ultrasonic beam and to receive a response signal;
causing relative rotation between the tube and the probe, the rotation being about a tube axis oriented along a tube axial direction;
determining respective ultrasonic time of flight measurements at different angular positions of the tube relative to the probe, using corresponding ultrasonic beam and response signal;
determining a series of respective distances corresponding to the time of flight measurements;
transforming the series of respective distances into a spatial frequency domain; and
determining a roundness profile of the tube outer surface using an inverse transform of a spatial frequency domain representation of the respective distances corresponding to a specified harmonic, the determining the roundness profile including compensating for a couplant temperature of a couplant used to acoustically couple the ultrasonic probe to the tube outer surface;
wherein the ultrasonic probe comprises a linear probe having a plurality of elements configured as a plurality of transmission apertures and having a linear probe direction with a linear probe length oriented substantially parallel to the axial direction of the tube;
wherein the plurality of transmission apertures are controlled to measure a plurality of aperture times of flight between respective apertures and the tube outer surface to provide the series of respective distances.