Patent ID: 8306779

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of predicting the probability of detection of major and minor defects in a structure, comprising: simulating a plurality of defects at locations in a region specified by a plurality of transducers formed in an array on the structure; in a digital computer or controller, incrementing a size of each defect until the incremented defect intersects one path between two of the transducers; in the digital computer or controller, incrementing the size of each defect until the incremented defect intersects two or more adjacent ones of the paths; for each size, determining in the digital computer or controller a number of major defects according to a number of the incremented defects intersecting one path; for each size, determining in the digital computer or controller a number of minor defects according to a number of the incremented defects intersecting two or more paths; and for each size, computing a probability of detection of major and/or minor defects by normalizing the number of major defects and/or minor defects for that size by the number of simulated defects, the probability of detection estimating a likelihood of detecting defects of that size.