Patent ID: 8656782

Claim:
A method for nondestructive material testing of a sectionally solid test object by an application of ultrasonic waves to the test object and a detection of the ultrasonic waves reflected inside the test object, the method comprising: subdividing the test object into a plurality of predetermined volume elements using an aid of a computer; applying ultrasound to the test object at a plurality of surface elements while scanning a surface or a surface section of the test object; detecting the sound waves reflected at the plurality of volume elements while scanning the plurality of surface elements on the surface or on the surface section of the test object; adding, in-phase, the sound waves reflected at the plurality of volume elements and detected at the plurality of surface elements of the surface of the test object within a predetermined angular interval about the acoustic axis; and using an angle-dependent amplitude distribution in a sound field of a test head, wherein the angle-dependent amplitude distribution in a sound field of the test head is used to determine a plurality of amplitudes of the reflected sound waves, and wherein a specific number of amplitudes are summed with the predetermined angular interval about the acoustic axis in order to calculate a size of a reference reflector that would produce a same amplitude sum.