In this paper, in order to solve the problem of damage localization of anisotropic carbon fiber composite plates, an improved dense array total focusing imaging method was proposed. Firstly, considering the anisotropy of the carbon fiber composite plate, the propagation characteristics of the ultrasonic guided waves in the plate were analyzed by experimental methods, and the group velocity values along different propagation directions were obtained. Secondly the parameters of the dense sensor array were analyzed and optimized,and the directional functions of different array parameters, include the spacing of array elements and the number of array elements, were numerically analyzed, and the parameters of the array were optimized to ensure that the main lobe of the array was narrow, the side lobes were low, and there was no grating lobe. Then, an improved structural defect location algorithm for dense sensor array plates considering the anisotropy of carbon fiber composite plates was proposed. The total focusing algorithm was modified by using the ultrasonic guided waves group velocity values along different propagation directions in the carbon fiber composite plate, and the total focusing imaging of the plate structure was carried out by using the virtual focusing principle. Finally, the positioning accuracy of the dense array total focus imaging method was analyzed by arranging the hole damage experiment of carbon fiber composites. The experimental results showed that the positioning accuracy of improved dense array total focusing imaging algorithm method is 1. 00 mm, compared to using a single group velocity value had high accuracy in locating hole damage defects.