Millimeter-Wave Imaging of Surface-Breaking Cracks in Steel with Severe Surface Corrosion

Abstract

Robust detection of surface-breaking (fatigue) cracks in metals with severe surface corrosion (rust) and pitting is of great practical interest. Detection of surface-breaking cracks in the millimeter-wave frequency range (30-300 GHz) has received considerable attention in the past two decades. At these frequencies, corrosion byproducts (rust) are in the family of dielectric materials allowing millimeter-wave signals to penetrate through and interact with a visually masked crack. When using open-ended rectangular waveguides, no contact is required, and the crack signal characteristics are significantly different than those from corrosion and pitting, which renders a crack detectable even in the presence of severe corrosion. Moreover, synthetic aperture radar images of cracks masked by corrosion can be rapidly generated providing additional geometrical information. This paper presents the results of uniquely combining these two methods for detecting cracks in severely corroded steel plates and for other similar applications where a crack is visually masked by a dielectric layer.

Department(s)

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Keywords and Phrases

Byproducts; Corrosion; Cracks; Dielectric Materials; Imaging Techniques; Millimeter Waves; Nondestructive Examination; Pitting; Radar; Surface Defects; Synthetic Aperture Radar; Corroded Steel Plates; Corrosion Byproducts; Geometrical Informations; Millimeter Wave Frequencies; Millimeter Wave Signals; Millimeter-Wave Imaging; Surface Cracks; Surface-Breaking Crack; Crack Detection; Imaging; Nondestructive Testing; Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0018-9456

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2017 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Oct 2017

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