TY - JOUR A1 - Müller, Sabine A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst A1 - Bohlen, T. T1 - Reverse time migration: a seismic imaging technique applied to synthetic ultrasonic data JF - International journal of geophysics N2 - Ultrasonic echo testing is a more and more frequently used technique in civil engineering to investigate concrete building elements, to measure thickness as well as to locate and characterise built-in components or inhomogeneities. Currently the Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique (SAFT), which is closely related to Kirchhoff migration, is used in most cases for imaging. However, this method is known to have difficulties to image steeply dipping interfaces as well as lower boundaries of tubes, voids or similar objects. We have transferred a processing technique from geophysics, the Reverse Time Migration (RTM) method, to improve the imaging of complicated geometries. By using the information from wide angle reflections as well as from multiple events there are fewer limitations compared to SAFT. As a drawback the required computing power is significantly higher compared to the techniques currently used. Synthetic experiments have been performed on polyamide and concrete specimens to show the improvements compared to SAFT. We have been able to image vertical interfaces of step-like structures as well as the lower boundaries of circular objects. It has been shown that RTM is a step forward for ultrasonic testing in civil engineering. KW - Beton KW - Ultraschall KW - Concrete KW - Imaging KW - Ultrasonics KW - Reverse time migration PY - 2012 DO - https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/128465 SN - 1687-8868 SN - 1687-885X VL - 2012 IS - Article ID 128465 SP - 1 EP - 7 PB - Hindawi Publishing Corporation CY - New York, NY, USA AN - OPUS4-26295 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -