Undetected inclusions in engineering components cause tremendous industrial expenses in maintenance and repairs each year, with additional risks of catastrophic failures. This paper introduces a powerful method for inclusion imaging and reconstruction in irregularly-shaped components, based on a cutting-edge imaging technique—full waveform inversion (FWI). We propose an ultrasonic scanning setup for nondestructive evaluation (NDE) that fits a variety of components with different shapes and sizes. The FWI theoretical expressions are summarized, aiming for creating clear explanations for the NDE and material characterization communities. Systematic analysis of the FWI performance using different setups has been conducted, and a variety of case studies show different aspects of complexity that the FWI technique can address. Multiple inclusions have been successfully reconstructed in gears, exhibiting the potential of applying the proposed technique in overcoming various NDE challenges related to the rapidly growing structural and material complexity nowadays.

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