Location of multiple proximate flaws using perpendicular NDT ultrasonic arrays

An improved method for ultrasonic location of multiple flaws using perpendicular ultrasonic arrays, working in near-field conditions, is presented. The method uses the pulse-echo technique and is based on the processing of the information acquired by both the elemental emitting transducers and their adjacent ones. This type of processing improves the performance of a previous method that sometimes presents limitations for the detection of multiples flaws. This new method is applied to a set of ultrasonic traces, obtained with an ultrasonic prototype specifically designed for testing this method, showing the improvement obtained in imaging results. (c) 2006 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.