Automatic detection of circular defects during ultrasonic inspection

In the non-destructive testing of materials, the use of imagery allows for more than only a qualitative representation of the results. Imagery can aid in automatically carrying out operations of detection, location and sizing of defects present in a structure. The rapidity of the calculators and their graphic performance allow us to use classical tools of image processing today, even though they require a large number of calculations. This work consists of applying the Hough transform to detect inclusions in a material by analyzing an ultrasonic c-scan image. In the first step, this image is binarized using the −6dB method, which reduces the defects to their real sizes. The Hough transform is then applied to the edges to detect the circular forms that characterize the inclusions.