Method of Multi-Angle Transmission Radiowave Tomography of Dielectric Objects

Abstract

A method for solving the inverse problem for reconstructing the spatial distribution of dielectric permittivity from the results of multi-angle transmission broadband radiosounding is proposed. The method is based on inverse wave propagation. The average refractive index of the medium along the wave trajectory is calculated by comparing the results of the calculation of the time delay of the inverse signal in the entire sounding region and the forward propagation time in a homogeneous medium. This method takes into account diffraction effects in solving a direct problem, which allows one to obtain a resolution in the order of a wavelength. The combination of time delays obtained at different probing angles allows the restoration of the distribution of the refractive index in the medium. The paper presents the results of the numerical simulation of this method. The novelty of the proposed approach compared to the conventional back-projection algorithm is that ray approximation is not applied. Instead of the absorption coefficient (used in X-ray tomography), a time delay is considered, which is restored in the entire probed region. The developed method can be widely used in radiowave tomography or microwave tomography for remote non-destructive testing, diagnostics for the internal structures of inhomogeneous media and the restoration of the shapes of opaque objects based on multisensor sensing.