A Novel Analytical Approach for Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation of Bone Implants Using Frequency Modulated Thermal Wave Imaging

Abstract

AbstractIn the recent decade, infrared thermography has gained its importance in nondestructive testing and the evaluation of solid materials due to its whole field, fast, noncontact, and in-service testing abilities. In infrared thermography, active infrared thermography has been widely adopted as the most promising technique for the structural health monitoring of various solid materials. The most frequently used active infrared techniques for nondestructive testing and evaluation of various solid structures are pulse thermography and lock-in thermography. But due to the innate limitations of these techniques, their usage for health monitoring of solid materials is limited. To overcome all these limitations of existing techniques, this work proposes an aperiodic pulse compression favorable thermal wave imaging approach for subsurface features detection in bone implants. An analytical model has been developed with the help of Green’s Function method for linear frequency modulated thermal wave imaging for the detection of subsurface features in the bone implant. Titanium alloys are commonly used materials for the manufacturing of bone implants. In this study, a bone implant is considered of Titanium-based alloys because of its biocompatibility, mechanical strength, corrosion resistance, non-toxicity, greater fracture resistance, and high strength to weight ratio. Further, the quantitative analysis of obtained results with the help of an analytical solution is then processed with a pulse compression favorable data processing approach in which the coefficient of correlation has been taken as a figure of merit. Then to support the analytical model studies, numerical simulation studies are performed with the help of commercially available simulation software COMSOL Multiphysics.KeywordsFrequency modulated thermal wave imaging (FMTWI)Green’s functionBone implantsCOMSOL multiphysicsCorrelation Coefficient