Plane wave imaging for ultrasonic inspection of irregular structures with high frame rates

Ultrasonic imaging with high frame rates is of great interest to perform fast inspections and to reduce NDE costs. In this communication, we propose a new fast imaging method which is derived from the medical Plane Wave Imaging (PWI). The PWI method is applied to different immersion-testing configurations (specimens with plane or complex surfaces) and to different imaging modes (imaging with direct or half-skip wave paths) according to the type of defects (point-like or extended crack-types defects).