Patent ID: 8365600

Claim:
A method using ultrasound for non-destructive examination of a test body, whereby ultrasonic waves are coupled into the test body with at least one ultrasonic transducer and the ultrasonic waves are reflected inside the test body and are received by ultrasonic transducers and converted into ultrasonic signals, which form a basis for the non-destructive examination, comprising: a) providing n ultrasonic transducers on a surface of a test body with n≧16; b) selecting and activating a first ultrasonic transducer or a first group with i ultrasonic transducers from the n ultrasonic transducers for transmission of ultrasonic waves into the test body, with i<n; c) receiving the ultrasonic waves reflected inside the test body using m ultrasonic transducers, with i<m≦n, and generating m ultrasonic signals; d) storing the m ultrasonic signals; e) selecting and activating another ultrasonic transducer or another group with i ultrasonic transducers, which differ from the first group by at least one ultrasonic transducer, for transmitting ultrasonic waves and carrying out process steps c) and d); f) repeating conducting of the process step e) with in each case selecting another ultrasonic transducer or another group of i ultrasonic transducers such that the other ultrasonic transducer or the other group with i ultrasonic transducers differs from an already selected ultrasonic transducer or from another already selected group with i ultrasonic transducers; g) evaluating the stored ultrasonic signals; and wherein h) providing of n ultrasonic transducers occurs in a two-dimensional array; i) activating all i ultrasonic transducers of a group occurs simultaneously, without phase shifting; j evaluating the ultrasonic signals is carried out off-line using a reconstruction algorithm after conducting ultrasonic transmission through the test body; k) the reconstruction algorithm is selected based on at least one of a virtually preset coupling-in angle and a virtual focussing of the ultrasonic waves coupled into the test body and is applied to the stored ultrasonic signals; and l) receiving of the ultrasonic waves reflected inside the test body is conducted using all ultrasonic transducers provided on a surface of the test body, with m=n.