US Patent 7367236 Non-destructive inspection system and associated method

An assembly, system, and method for identifying defects in a structure are provided. The assembly includes a structure of a metallic or composite material, and a flexible sheet of material positioned adjacent to the structure. The assembly also includes a plurality of non-destructive sensors secured to the flexible sheet, and a mechanism operable to impact the flexible sheet or proximate to the flexible sheet to generate stress waves within and along a surface of the structure. The system further provides a data acquisition system capable of communicating with the sensors such that the data acquisition system generates feedback indicative of at least a portion of the structure based on data from the stress waves acquired by the sensors.