The pathological states of biological tissue are often resulted in attenuation changes. Thus, information about attenuating properties of tissue is valuable for the physician and could be useful in ultrasonic diagnosis. We are currently developing a technique for parametric imaging of attenuation and we intend to apply it for in vivo characterization of tissue. The attenuation estimation method based on the echoes mean frequency changes due to tissue attenuation dispersion, is presented. The Doppler IQ technique was adopted to estimate the mean frequency directly from the raw RF data. The Singular Spectrum Analysis technique was used for the extraction of mean frequency trends. These trends were converted into attenuation distribution and finally the parametric images were computed. In order to reduce variation of attenuation estimates the spatial compounding method was applied. Operation and accuracy of attenuation extracting procedure was verified by calculating the attenuation coefficient distribution using the data from the tissue phantom (DFS, Denmark) with uniform echogenicity while attenuation coefficient underwent variation.

This paper considers the assessment of attenuation in aluminium alloys castings and in cast iron prepared by gravity casting method and by casting under pressure. The issue of ultrasound attenuation is important in setting the conditions of non-destructive (NDT) testing, especially in casted materials. The characteristics of the ultrasonic technique and ultrasonic attenuation and the calculation of the attenuation and the velocity of ultrasound are presented in the theoretical part of this paper. For experimental measurements, cylindrical castings from AlSi alloy (a hypoeutectic alloy with a silicon content of about 7% - AlSi7 and a eutectic alloy with a silicon content of about 12% - AlSi12) and from grey and ductile cast iron were made. The ultrasonic records of the casting control, the calculation of ultrasound attenuation for individual samples are listed and described in the experimental part. The evaluation of measurements and comparison of calculated ultrasound attenuation is at the end of this article.