Ultrasonic arrays in NDE: Beyond the B-scan

The primary outputs of ultrasonic arrays in NDE are B-scan images that mimic the mechanical scanning of a single-element transducer. An alternative, that has only become practically feasible in the last decade, is to capture the full matrix of raw array data from all transmit-receive element combinations and perform other operations in post-processing. This article examines the ways in which the full matrix of raw array data can be exploited to improve ultrasonic NDE.