Probabilistic evaluation of the area of coverage of a probe used for eddy current non-destructive inspections

This study proposes a method to probabilistically evaluate the area of coverage of nondestructive inspections to detect defects on a surface of a structure. For the specific problem, this study considers the effect of the distance between two neighboring scanning lines on the detectability of eddy current testing against near-side cracks. Thirty-eight type 316L stainless steel plates having a fatigue crack were prepared, and eddy current examinations were performed with a sufficiently fine scanning pitch. The full width at half maximum of the spatial distribution of the amplitude of the signals was approximated using a Gaussian function. A probability of detection model considering the distance between two neighboring scanning lines is proposed because in actual inspections a scanning line does not always run directly above a crack. The results demonstrated that the proposed model enables a reasonable probabilistic evaluation of the effect of the distance between two neighboring scanning lines.