Patents by Inventor Michael C. Fehler

Michael C. Fehler has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 5369997
    Abstract: Small changes in material properties of a work piece are detected by measuring small changes in elastic wave velocity and attenuation within a work piece. Active, repeatable source generate coda wave responses from a work piece, where the coda wave responses are temporally displaced. By analyzing progressive relative phase and amplitude changes between the coda wave responses as a function of elapsed time, accurate determinations of velocity and attenuation changes are made. Thus, a small change in velocity occurring within a sample region during the time periods between excitation origin times (herein called "doublets") will produce a relative delay that changes with elapsed time over some portion of the scattered waves. This trend of changing delay is easier to detect than an isolated delay based on a single arrival and provides a direct measure of elastic wave velocity changes arising from changed material properties of the work piece.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 1993
    Date of Patent: December 6, 1994
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy
    Inventors: Peter M. Roberts, Michael C. Fehler, Paul A. Johnson, W. Scott Phillips