Method and system for inspecting a surface of an object with laser ultrasound

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method and system for inspecting a surface of an object with laser ultrasound. In the present invention, the surface is scanned with a source laser emitting a laser beam at a plurality of scanning positions. The emitted laser beam generates surface or Lamb waves at the plurality of scanning positions and transmits the waves throughout the surface. The surface of the object is scanned with a detector laser emitting a laser beam onto the object surface at the plurality of scanning positions. Surface displacement produced by the waves reflected from the surface is detected with a detector at each scanning position. The detected displacement at each scanning position contains signals representing a laser ultrasound waveform data set corresponding to a two-dimensional surface region along the object. The laser ultrasound waveform data sets at each scanning position are processed with a synthetic aperture focusing technique in order to generate high resolution images. The images are then inspected for defects that include cracks, disbonds, and corrosion.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.