Visualization investigation of defects in structural steel materials with electrical resistance tomography

Abstract

A visualisation study of internal defects in structural steel was proposed using electrical resistance tomography (ERT) method. Structural steel is a metallic dielectric with low resistance and high conductivity. Therefore, the application of ERT in the field of low resistance, which is rarely involved, is of great significance. To realize this goal, in this study, we independently developed a 3D-ERT system with programmable logic control. In this system, based on to the actual condition, we construct a three-dimensional sensor to detect the defect location in structural steel. Numerical simulations and physical experiments of the three-dimensional sensor are conducted to test the effectiveness of the constructed system in detecting the location of structural steel defects. Numerical simulation and physical experimental results show that the 3D-ERT system can detect the location and approximate size of defects in structural steel. The research results show that this study not only provides a novel idea for non-destructive testing (NDT) of structural steel but also expands the application scope of ERT technology. Furthermore, the proposed NDT has broad development prospects and great application value.