A review on deformation-induced electromagnetic radiation detection: history and current status of the technique

Abstract Development of the deformation monitoring techniques for the infrastructures so as to avoid catastrophic failure and resulting economic/human loss has remained a key interest of scientists and engineers. Among various deformation monitoring techniques utilized and explored by groups of researchers, electromagnetic radiation detection is one of the intriguing techniques which has remained popular in researchers’ community till today. Almost every type of material is being explored and studied by researchers for the electromagnetic emissions when subjected to external loading and/or failure. Experimental and theoretical investigations are demonstrating these emissions to be a suitable candidate for the deformation monitoring, as a failure predictor and to know about the complex phenomenon of fracture. This article presents extensive literature review and a rigorous discussion on the work done in the past several decades regarding the exploration of electromagnetic emissions from a wide variety of materials and the underlying physical mechanisms. Thus, this review is an attempt to highlight main findings, proposed physical mechanisms, prospective applications, future scope and challenges of the electromagnetic emission detection technique.