Application of PLANE WAVE IMAGING technology in ultrasonic non-destructive testing

The Plane Wave Imaging (PHI) method allows you to combine the advantages of phased array antenna technology (FAR) and CFA technology. In PWI mode, when emitting a plane wave, all elements of the antenna array (AR) work (as in the HEADLIGHT mode), which allows you to increase the energy entered into the control object, and echo signals are recorded by all elements of the AR (as in the CFA mode). The images of the reflectors are restored by the combination SAFT method. To obtain an image, the number of emitted plane waves can be used less than the number of antenna array elements, which reduces the volume of measured echo signals. The transfer of calculations to the area of spatial sectors makes it possible to increase the speed of restoration of the presentation of reflectors. Model experiments have shown the positive and negative sides of obtaining images of reflectors by the PWI method in comparison with the CFA method both for the case of using a prism and without a prism.