A Reciprocity-Based Signal Compensation Framework for Ultrasonic Backscatter Measurements in Heterogeneous Scattering Media

TL;DR

This paper introduces a reciprocity-based compensation method for ultrasonic backscatter measurements in heterogeneous materials, improving the accuracy of microstructural characterization by reducing propagation bias.

Contribution

A novel reciprocal constraint-based approach that estimates shared propagation effects to enhance backscatter signal interpretation in complex media.

Findings

Significantly reduces directional mismatch in backscatter profiles.

Outperforms conventional attenuation compensation in heterogeneous Ti--6Al--4V samples.

Preserves local scattering variations while correcting propagation bias.

Abstract

Ultrasonic backscatter measurements are widely used for microstructural characterisation. However, in materials containing strong anisotropy and spatial heterogeneity, the interpretation of backscatter signals becomes challenging because distance-dependent propagation effects can obscure genuine microstructural variations across depth. In this paper, a cross-directional compensation method is presented for ultrasonic backscatter measurements acquired from opposing inspection surfaces. The method exploits the reciprocal constraint that the dominant through-thickness propagation bias should contain a shared component between opposing inspection directions. A shared distance-dependent baseline is estimated in the logarithmic amplitude domain using an anchor-based fitting approach and subsequently used to compensate the measured backscatter profiles with depth. The method is demonstrated on two macrozone-containing Ti--6Al--4V samples, where conventional attenuation-based compensation is shown to be insufficient to consistently reconcile opposing-face backscatter profiles. Across six opposing-face signal pairs, the proposed method reduces the mean standard deviation of the directional mismatch profile from $0.367$ to $0.120$ and the mean absolute fitted gradient from $0.171$ to $0.0067$, outperforming conventional attenuation compensation. These results demonstrate that reciprocity-based compensation can reduce propagation-related bias while preserving local direction-dependent scattering variations, providing a practical signal-normalisation framework for backscatter analysis in heterogeneous anisotropic materials.