Quantitative evaluation of surface crack depth with laser spot thermography

Abstract In this study, a numerical method based on finite element method (FEM) is developed to simulate the heat flow generated by laser spot source and investigate the relationship between crack size and temperature distribution. The feasibility of the simulation method is validated by experiments both in time and spatial domains. The simulation and experiment results also show that the crack depth can be described by two characteristic parameters. Furthermore, a quantitative retrieval method based on neural network is developed for the crack depth evaluation by using the parameters. By using the proposed method, crack depth can be determined only by analyzing measured surface temperature values.