Integrated detection for open and closed surface fatigue cracks utilizing scanning laser source-induced Rayleigh wave fields with self-reference peak-to-peak features

In this study, the integrated detection method for open and closed surface fatigue cracks is investigated. Firstly, the finite element simulation models are established to investigate the interaction between scanning laser source-induced Rayleigh waves and open and closed surface fatigue cracks, and the laser ultrasonic detection experiments are conducted for fatigue specimens containing fatigue cracks in different states. The simulation and experimental results indicate that the variation patterns in the peak-to-peak values of Rayleigh waves with horizontal scanning positions for open and closed cracks exhibit both similarities and differences. Subsequently, an integrated detection method based on self-referenced peak-to-peak features is proposed, which utilizes the similarities and differences to detect and distinguish open and closed cracks, respectively. Furthermore, this proposed method is experimentally validated, indicating that it can achieve accurate integrated imaging of open and closed cracks that have a high degree of agreement with the SEM images of the cracks. Additionally, the proposed method achieves a detection error of 2 % for the vertical lengths of the fatigue cracks. This study can provide guidance for integrated real-time detection of open and closed surface fatigue cracks of mechanical components in service.