Simulation of ultrasonic Non Destructive Testing (NDT) is helpful for evaluating performances of inspection techniques and requires the modelling of waves scattered by defects. Two classical flaw scattering models have been previously usually employed and evaluated to deal with inspection of planar defects, the Kirchhoff approximation (KA) for simulating reflection and the Geometrical Theory of Diffraction (GTD) for simulating diffraction. Combining them so as to retain advantages of both, the Physical Theory of Diffraction (PTD) initially developed in electromagnetism has been recently extended to elastodynamics. In this paper a PTD-based system model is proposed for simulating the ultrasonic response of crack-like defects. It is also extended to provide good description of regions surrounding critical rays where the shear diffracted waves and head waves interfere. Both numerical and experimental validation of the PTD model is carried out in various practical NDT configurations, such as pulse echo and Time of Flight Diffraction (TOFD), involving both crack tip and corner echoes. Numerical validation involves comparison of this model with KA and GTD as well as the Finite-Element Method (FEM).

Diffraction phenomena studied in electromagnetism, acoustics, and elastodynamics are often modeled using integrals, such as the well-known Sommerfeld integral. The far field asymptotic evaluation of such integrals obtained using the method of steepest descent leads to the classical Geometrical Theory of Diffraction (GTD). It is well known that the method of steepest descent is inapplicable when the integrand's stationary phase point coalesces with its pole, explaining why GTD fails in zones where edge diffracted waves interfere with incident or reflected waves. To overcome this drawback, the Uniform geometrical Theory of Diffraction (UTD) has been developed previously in electromagnetism, based on a ray theory, which is particularly easy to implement. In this paper, UTD is developed for the canonical elastodynamic problem of the scattering of a plane wave by a half-plane. UTD is then compared to another uniform extension of GTD, the Uniform Asymptotic Theory (UAT) of diffraction, based on a more cumbersome ray theory. A good agreement between the two methods is obtained in the far field.