Detection of damages in underwater metal plate using acoustic inverse scattering and image processing methods

Non-destructive testing and structural health monitoring are essential for safety and reliability of marine kinetic energy related fields. In this work we address the problem of damage detection of underwater finite length plates using acoustic inverse scattering and image processing methods. Time series signals and the 2D images obtained from these signals have been studied to improve detection accuracy. Optimal parameters are selected for near-end edge echoes elimination and binarization is used to reduce computational complexity. A robust and simple method was proposed to detect and localize a possible damage in 2D images based on image processing and analysis. Experimental results show that the detection rate for crack damage reaches 100% and localization accuracy reaches 96% on average.