1 – Laser Ultrasound (Sjoerd van Eldik)
Traditional ultrasonic examination of materials is done with piezo-electric transducers. A downside of this technique is the physical contact required. This research aims to generate the same images but without any physical contact. To this end the transducer is replaced by a pulsed laser and a laser interferometer. This results in a non-contact examination tool.
- Duration 2025 – 2028.
- Publications
- S van Eldik, F Bookelmann, DJ Verschuur, KWA van Dongen, “An analytical solution for laser heating in laser ultrasound,” International Ultrasonics Symposium 2026.
- S van Eldik, T Stratoudaki, F Bookelmann, E Verschuur, KWA. van Dongen, “Temporal Hadamard multiplexing for laser ultrasound,” International Ultrasonics Symposium 2026.
2 – Analytic Greens Functions for Wave Propagation in Heterogeneous Media (Fenna Bookelmann)
Waves (acoustic, elastic or electromagnetic) are frequently used to visualize structures and object present in a medium. Currently, wave modelling in heterogeneous medium requires approximate methods or numerical approaches, such as Finite Difference (FD) methods. However, these methods are computationally expensive. This project is about deriving analytic solutions for the waves in heterogeneous media. This would have several advantages, such as easy to implement and computationally efficient.
- Joint project with Shearwater and Delft Inversion.
- Duration 2025 – 2028.
- Publications
- F Bookelmann, MW Hogendoorn, E Verschuur, KWA van Dongen, “Quaternion-Based Solutions for Pressure Fields in Smooth 3D Heterogeneous Medial,” 87th EAGE Annual Conference & Exhibition 2026 (1), 1-5.
3 – Near Surface Inspection using Medical Elastography (Matthijs Hogendoorn)
When constructing large structures such as wind turbines, it is essential to accurately characterize the rigidity, or stiffness, of the subsurface soil. This stiffness is described by geotechnical parameters including shear- and pressure-wave velocities and the shear modulus. Currently, these properties are typically measured using invasive methods such as the Cone Penetration test, which provide only localized information. Such measurements are often complemented by seismic imaging of the region of interest. The objective of this work is to retrieve these geotechnical parameters using a non-invasive, imaging-based approach inspired by techniques developed in medical elastography.
- Joint project with Fugro and Deltares.
- Duration 2025 – 2028.
4 – Electromagnetic and Elastic Modelling and Inversion (Håkon Stavang)
This PhD project focuses on the development of modeling and inversion methods for electromagnetic and elastic wave propagation. A major challenge in modeling the wave fields is to achieve a balance between computational speed and inversion accuracy. Fully three-dimensional simulations for both electromagnetic and elastic responses are computationally intensive, and robust inversion requires running many forward models to explore uncertainties. To address this, the project investigates efficient forward-modeling techniques and inversion strategies with the goal being to achieve real time or near real time imaging, enabling fast and reliable interpretation of the “object” during testing.
- Joint project with University of Bergen and Norwegian Research Centre (Bergen, Norway).
- Duration 2026 – 2029
5 – Standardization and Advancement of Quality Assurance in Hyperthermia (Abiram Kanagaratnam)
- Joint project with Erasmus MC (Rotterdam, the Netherlands)
- Duration 2026 – 2029.