Discussion on Distributed Conductivity for Modeling Stress Corrosion Crack in Eddy Current Testing

The study discusses a proper numerical modeling of stress corrosion crack (SCC) in finite element simulations, mainly from the viewpoint of the distribution of conductivity along the surface of crack. Two SCCs introduced into austenitic stainless steel plates are studied. SCCs are modeled as a region with a constant width, and non-uniform conductivity along surface of crack in the direction of depth of the SCCs, on the basis of the true profile revealed by destructive tests. Eddy current signals gathered by a differential probe with several frequencies are analyzed. The results show that a more appropriate model of SCC can be obtained by considering non-uniform conductivity.