Nondestructive Evaluation with Beamforming Transducer Arrays

If a nondestructive evaluation system is designed to detect the presence or absence of a flaw in a material, typically one transducer may be sufficient. If, however, a characterization of the flaw is desired, then an array of transducers is in most cases required. Besides the capability of two and three dimensional imaging, array data has the advantages of increased resolution, improved signal-to-noise ratio after preprocessing and sharper focusing.