Eddy-current induced thermography: probability of detection study of small fatigue cracks in steel, titanium and nickel-based superalloy

Abstract Eddy-current induced thermography (induction thermography, hereon referred to as eddytherm) is an active thermographic method which is capable of rapid and non-contacting detection of out-of-plane cracks in electrically conductive parts. In an eddytherm inspection, the part is induction heated; cracks cause localised changes in the induced eddy-current flow and the associated Joule heating is imaged at the surface of the part with an infrared camera. In this study the detectability of fatigue cracks in steel, titanium and Waspaloy is quantified by novel but simple image processing routines which are specifically applicable to eddytherm inspection. The quantitative detection data is then input into a cumulative log-normal probability of detection model to estimate the probability of detecting the fatigue cracks as a function of crack length. a 90,95 (i.e., the crack length which can be detected 90% of the time with 95% confidence) is found to be 0.60 mm for steel, 0.78 mm for titanium and 1.50 mm for Waspaloy (a nickel-based superalloy), showing eddytherm to be an extremely sensitive method.