Section: New Results

Inverse problems

Linear Sampling Method with realistic data in waveguides

Participants : Laurent Bourgeois, Arnaud Recoquillay.

Our activities in the field of inverse scattering in waveguides with the help of sampling methods has now a quite long history. We now intend to apply these methods in the case of realistic data, that is surface data in the time domain. This is the subject of the PhD of Arnaud Recoquillay. It is motivated by Non Destructive Testing activities for tubular structures and is the object of a partnership with CEA List (Vahan Baronian).

Our strategy consists in transforming the time domain problem into a multi-frequency problem by the Fourier transform. This allows us to take full advantage of the established efficiency of modal frequency-domain sampling methods. We have already proved the feasibility of our approach in the 2D acoustic and 2D elastic case. In particular, we have shown how to optimize the number of sources/receivers and the distance between them in order to obtain the best possible identification result. Experiments are currently carried in CEA.

The “exterior approach" to solve inverse obstacle problems

Participants : Laurent Bourgeois, Arnaud Recoquillay.

We consider some inverse obstacle problems in acoustics by using a single incident wave, either in the frequency or in the time domain. When so few data are available, a Linear Sampling type method cannot be applied. In order to solve those kinds of problem, we propose an “exterior approach", coupling a mixed formulation of quasi-reversibility and a simple level set method. In such iterative approach, for a given defect $D$, we update the solution $u$ with the help of a mixed formulation of quasi-reversibility while for a given solution $u$, we update the defect $D$ with the help of a level set method based on a Poisson problem. The case of data in the frequency domain has been studied for the waveguide geometry. We currently investigate the case of data in a finite time domain.

A continuation method for building large invisible obstacles in waveguides

Participants : Antoine Bera, Anne-Sophie Bonnet-Ben Dhia.

In collaboration with Lucas Chesnel (EPI DEFI) and Sergei Nazarov (Saint-Petersburg University), we consider time harmonic acoustic problems in waveguides. We are interested in finding localized perturbations of a straight waveguide which are not detectable in the far field, as they produce neither reflection nor conversion of propagative modes. In other words, such invisible perturbation produces a scattered field which is exponentially decaying at infinity in the two infinite outlets of the waveguide.

In our previous contributions, we found a way to build smooth and small perturbations of the boundary which were almost invisible, in the sense that they were producing (in the monomode regime) no reflexions but maybe a phase shift in transmission.

The method is constructive and has been validated numerically. But the drawback is that it is limited to low frequency and small perturbations. During the last year, we have shown that the previous idea can be combined with a continuation method, in order to get larger invisible perturbations at higher frequency.