Reconstruction of crack shapes from the MFLT signals by using a rapid forward solver and an optimization approach

Abstract

In this paper, the reconstruction of crack shapes from magnetic flux leakage testing (MFLT) signals is realized by introducing a rapid forward simulator and applying a deterministic optimization approach. The MFLT signals due to cracks of different shape are calculated with an FEM-BEM code employing the A method and polarization algorithm, which is accelerated by the new rapid forward scheme. For reconstructing the crack shape, the conjugate gradient method is applied with the gradients predicted by using the difference technique. Both inner and outer cracks are successfully reconstructed from simulated MFLT signals that verified both the efficiency of the fast-forward scheme and the feasibility of the deterministic inverse approach.