Identification and analysis of multimode guided waves in tibia cortical bone.

The hollow cylinder model filled with viscous-liquid is performed to simulate tibial bone shape in this paper. Short time Fourier transform (STFT) was applied to identify and analyze guided wave modes of a series of ultrasonic signals acquired at various transmitter-receiver positions for a fixed transmitter. Experimental results were compared with theoretical simulation. The high correlation values for group velocity were obtained between results of experiment and theory for L(0,2) (r=0.89, p<10(-5)), and L(0,3) (r=0.87, p<10(-5)). The experimental group velocities correlated strongly with cortical thickness (cortTh) for L(0,2) (r(2)=0.79, p<10(-5)) and L(0,3) (r(2)=0.74, p<10(-5)) at 0.5 MHz center frequency. The results showed that the STFT is an effective method to identify the propagating modes and derive dispersion information. The experimental results were in good agreement with theoretical predictions. This study suggests that the guided wave L(0,2) mode is a promising mode to assess change in cortical thickness.