Ultrasonic Damage Imaging of Structural Components with Bulk and Guided Waves using Match Coefficients

Damage imaging of structural components in the field NDE/SHM using ultrasonic waves is usually performed by conventional imaging techniques such as Delay-And-Sum (DAS). This technique results in sidelobes and artifacts that worsen the accuracy of the damage identification. Here we propose a novel imaging approach that derives from the well-known technique of Matched Field Processing (MFP). In this work, we apply this matching approach only to selected features extracted from the recorded waveforms for multiple modes of propagation of the ultrasonic waves. Applications of this imaging approach will be shown for bulk solids and plate-like structures.