An Outline of Applications of Ultrasonic Guided Waves in Non-destructive Testing of Large Strutures*

Guided waves have been the attractive ways for the nondestructive inspection of the large structure because of their many advantages. The characteristics of guided waves are presented; some consideration of guided waves in the large structure inspection is stated; excitation methods and their merits and shortcomings are introduced. Several typical applications of guided waves in the large structures are followed. It is concluded that the ultrasonic guided waves would be developed continuously in the future, However, owing to the complex dispersion, the inevitable noise and useless signal are met with together which results in the difficulties of extraction and analysis of the useful signal. Therefore some problems still exist in current applications of guided waves.