Ultrasonic imaging by leaky Rayleigh waves

Abstract Leaky Rayleigh waves are used for the ultrasonic imaging of surface-breaking or near-surface defects. The phenomena which take place when a leaky Rayleigh wave propagates and interacts with a flaw are described in order to explain both how the ultrasonic image is built using a single transducer and what the main characteristics of these images are. In particular, the influence of the ultrasonic frequency is investigated in detail.