Affiliations: [a] School of Automation Engineering, University of
Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China | [b] School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,
Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom | [c] International Paint Ltd. Gateshead, Tyne and Wear,
United Kingdom
Correspondence:
[*]
Corresponding author: Gui Yun Tian, School of Automation
Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu,
Sichuan, 611731, China. E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: Corrosion characterisation on metal substrates is a major problem in
the field of corrosion science and Non-destructive Evaluation (NDE). In this
work, the electromagnetic NDE method, Pulsed Eddy Current (PEC) Thermography,
has been applied to evaluate the corrosion on the mild steel plates. By
analysis of heat induction and heat diffusion, early stage thermal images are
proposed to avoid the lateral heat diffusion and to detect the corrosion
progression more accurately. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is used to
extract the variation information from the different time period image
sequences to improve the imaging quality and to validate the early detection
theory. Results show that PEC thermography has potential as a rapid tool for
corrosion characterisation.
Keywords: Corrosion, pulsed eddy current thermography, heat diffusion, early detection, principal component analysis
