Mobility experience with a research focus
PhD sandwich
Department of Electrical, Electronic, and Information Engineering
Ultrasonic inspection systems are widely used in non-destructive test and structural health monitoring aiming to identify and size defects within different types of engineering structures, mainly in the energy industry.
Ultrasonic waves can be generated by different types of transducers, such as piezoelectric or electromagnetic acoustic transducers. Their generation however is usually either omnidirectional or bidirectional. This characteristic can hinder defect detection and positioning and introduces the need for multiple transducers arranged in phased arrays requiring high power consuming electronics and complex signal processing techniques.
Recently, a new ultrasonic transducer, namely the Frequency Steerable Acoustic Transducer (FSAT), was put forward. The FSAT leads to a relationship between the frequency of the generated or received guided waves and its propagation direction, therefore enabling a simpler implementation for directional controllable ultrasonic testing systems.
This collaborative research project aims to advance on the research of FSATs such as by proposing solutions to compensate for the inherent dispersive nature of ultrasonic guided waves, proposing new construction parameters in its design, such as in its phase, and applying it to distinct ultrasonic transducer technologies. The new transducers will be analytically, numerically and the experimentally evaluated aiming at different applications. The results will be analysed by means of different signal processing techniques, such as filters in wavenumber domain and machine learning approaches.
The candidate will join the Intelligent Sensor Systems group and have access to the instrumentation available at the “Pepoli lab” of the ARCES-UNIBO research centre. Moreover, he/she will have the opportunity to follow the courses of the UNIBO PhD Programme “Engineering and Information Technology for Structural and Environmental Monitoring and Risk Management”
Communication between the expected applicant and the supervisor, as well as between other members of the research group, will be carried out mainly in English.
Advanced scientific computing skills (MATLAB, Python); Experience in lab measurements with ultrasonic and electronic equipment. The expected applicant should be in mid-term of their PhD and be familiarized with ultrasound wave theory and techniques. Advanced scientific computing skills and ability to devise and carry out experiments with ultrasonic and electronic equipment are desired.
PhD sandwich: 6-12