Identification of Critical Surface Displacement Parameters for Characterization of Subsurface Flaws
Several NDE methods provide accurate techniques for measuring surface displacements. While these techniques have been successful in identification of near-surface embedded flaws, they generally offer little in terms of characterization of the flaws. The ability to characterize embedded flaws from measurements of surface displacements would offer substantial benefits, especially in terms of remaining life predictions. This paper focuses on the identification of critical out-of-plane surface displacement parameters, and assessment of the potential to characterize subsurface flaw geometry based on these parameters. Finite element models of a homogeneous material have been created that vary the embedded flaw size and edge distance. The results suggest that there is potential to characterize the subsurface geometry from the surface displacement parameters.