IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 11, NO.
12, DECEMBER 2011
Surface Crack Detection for Carbon Fiber Reinforced
Plastic (CFRP) Materials Using Pulsed Eddy
Current Thermography
Liang Cheng and Gui Yun Tian, Senior Member, IEEE
AbstractThere is currently a requirement in many industries
to inspect carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) components,
such as those used in aircraft and for wind turbine blades to iden-
tify issues leading to potential failures. To detect surface cracks,
pulsed eddy current (PEC) thermography is proposed as a pow-
erful inspection technique, allowing the operator to observe the
heating developed from the eddy current distribution in a struc-
ture using infrared imaging, detecting defects over a relatively
wide area within a short time (of the order of milliseconds). In
this paper, a PEC thermography inspection system for CFRP ma-
terials is studied and optimized. Using the system, the directional
electrical conductivity of the CFRP material is observed through
the surface heating pattern. Then, the normalized temperature
rise and decay are investigated through the inspection of notches
with varied depths and widths. The position invariance of the coil
with respect to the notch along the fiber direction is also studied in
the experiments. The work shows that PEC thermography can be
used for defect detection and characterization through analysis of
the surface heating pattern and the transient temperature change.
Index TermsCarbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP), nonde-
structive testing and evaluation (NDT&E), pulsed eddy current
(PEC) thermography, surface defects.
I. INTRODUCTION
N RECENT decades, there has been an increasing interest
I in the use of composite materials, particularly carbon fiber
reinforced plastic (CFRP), in the aerospace and renewable en-
ergy industries, because of the low weight and improved me-
chanical properties compared with metals. Components made
from CFRP, such as wind turbine blades and aircraft fuselage,
have to be tested for quality evaluation after manufacturing and
monitored during in-service operation to increase the compo-
nent lifetime. To accomplish this, nondestructive testing and
evaluation (NDT&E) techniques are used.
Ultrasonic testing is one of the most widely used methods
for composite material inspection [1], [2] and has the advantage
that it can detect defects in the interior of material. However,
this method suffers from a number of disadvantages, including
Manuscript received March 01, 2011; revised April 27, 2011; accepted May
07, 2011. Date of publication May 23, 2011; date of current version November
02, 2011. This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council (EPSRC), U.K., under Grant EP/F06151X/1. The PEC
thermography system was developed through the RCNDE (Research Centre
of NDE) supported by EPSRC in collaboration with Rolls Royce, Alstom
and University of Bath. The associate editor coordinating the review of this
manuscript and approving it for publication was Prof. Okyay Kaynak.
The authors are with the School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engi-
neering, University of Newcastle, NE1 7RU Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K. (e-mail:
liang.cheng@newcastle.ac.uk; g.y.tian@newcastle.ac.uk).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JSEN.2011.2157492
1530-437X/$26.00 2011 IEEE
3261
the need for a couplant required for introducing acoustic waves,
lack of sensitivity to shallow surface breaking defects, and large
attenuation of acoustic waves when propagating through the
multilayered structure of composites. Other NDT&E techniques
have also been applied to composite material inspection, such
as X-ray [3], acoustic emission [4], [5], eddy current [6], [7],
and microwave [8], [9]. Different NDT&E techniques have dif-
ferent characteristics, but the majority of methods have limi-
tations with regard to large-scale sensing, imaging, and com-
prehensive measurement or have safety issues. Consequently,
the integration of NDT techniques to achieve improved perfor-
mances has been implemented.
The major advantage of thermography over other techniques
is the potential for rapid inspection of a large area within a
short time, though currently it is mostly applied to samples
in the lab instead of in situ structures [10]. However, there is
a tradeoff between detectable defect size and inspection area.
Thermography is also applicable to a wide range of materials,
including glass fiber, carbon fiber composites, and metallic
materials, where specific excitation techniques are suitable for
different applications. To inspect defects over a large scale and
at large standoff distances, integration of thermography and
other NDE approaches have been investigated [11][15], e.g.,
flash thermography [16][18], vibrothermography, sonic ther-
mography [19], laser thermography [2], optical thermography
[20], and pulsed eddy current (PEC) thermography or induc-
tion thermography [21]. Among the thermography techniques
mentioned previously, PEC thermography, combining PEC and
thermography, has its own advantages. For composite materials,
varied excitation direction can be used in PEC thermography
to investigate different layers, since the electrical and thermal
conductivity is the greatest along the fiber orientation. In addi-
tion, the application of heat is not limited to the sample surface,
such as in the flash thermography; rather, it can reach a certain
depth, which is governed by the skin depth or penetration depth
formula
(1)
where is excitation frequency, is the electrical conductivity,
and is the permeability of the material under inspection. The
transient of electromagnetic (EM) distribution and heat diffu-
sion can derive a depth profile of defects [22], compared with
surface-heating techniques.
PEC thermography involves the application of high-current
EM pulse to the conductive material under inspection for a short
period (typically less than 1 s). When the eddy currents en-
counter a discontinuity (e.g., notches or delaminations), they are
3262
Fig. 1. 2-D geometry setup for PEC thermography simulation.
forced to divert, leading to regions of increased and decreased
eddy current density. The notch in this paper is defined as
a surface crack over the full width of the sample, but finite in
depth and width, as shown in Fig. 1. For the notch case, eddy
current diversion results in increased eddy current density at the
notch bottom, where higher levels of Joule (ohmic) heating is
achieved [23]. Thus, the defect can be identified from a charac-
teristic heat distribution in the thermal image/video. After the
period of eddy current heating, the notch also affects the heat
diffusion in the cooling phase. Therefore, the mixed phenomena
of induction heating dominating the heating phase and heat dif-
fusion dominating the cooling phase and their specific behavior
is used for the quantitative NDE (QNDE) of defects.
PEC thermography has been used to mainly inspect metals
in previous studies [23][25]. Oswald-Tranta and Wally [24]
investigated the temperature distribution around a crack with
different penetration depths using FEM modeling and experi-
ments with metallic materials. The results showed the crack can
be identified by lower temperatures at surface edges of the crack
and higher temperatures at the crack bottom in nonmagnetic ma-
terials with a large penetration depth. Taking CFRP material as
an example, the penetration depth is much larger than that of a
metallic material. Therefore, in this study the temperature at the
bottom of the notch will be investigated because it is higher than
that at the edge of the notch. Ramdane et al. carried out 3-D nu-
merical simulations and experiments on both metallic and com-
posite materials [26]. The results showed that delaminations in
CFRP could be detected using PEC thermography. However,
the other types of defect in composite material were not inves-
tigated.
In this paper, PEC thermography is proposed and extended
from surface defect detection in metallic components to CFRP
components, via numerical simulations and experiments. This
paper is organized as follows. Section II describes the analyt-
ical model for eddy current and heat diffusion mechanisms; the
simulation studies on how notch depth and width impacts on
the transient temperature change are described in Section III.
Experiments on directional conductivity inspection, the impact
of notch depth on the transient temperature rise, and notch po-
sition invariance are reported in Section IV.
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 11, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2011
II. THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS
In this paper, an analytical model is established for the eddy
current (EM) and heat diffusion phenomena. A conductive ma-
terial is heated by Joule heating, which is caused by resistive
heating from the eddy currents. The generated resistive heat
is proportional to the square of the eddy current density or
electric field intensity . The relationship between , , and
is governed by
(2)
where is the electrical conductivity. According to Maxwells
equations, the magnetic vector potential can be calculated
from
(3)
Subsequently, the electric field intensity vector and the
eddy current density can be derived via (1) and
(4)
The heat conduction equation of a specimen caused by a Joule
heating source is governed by
(5)
where , , and are density, heat capacity, and thermal con-
ductivity, respectively.
III. NUMERICAL SIMULATION STUDIES
A. Simulation Setup
In this study, CFRP samples (dimensions 100 mm 38
mm 6 mm) provided by Exel Composites UK are used in
the experiments. In the simulation, the thickness and width of
the sample are set the same as the experimental sample, while
the length of the sample is reduced for faster calculation since
there is no need to model over the whole length. The single
notch in the sample with varied depth or width is simulated, as
shown in Fig. 1. Notches with width (0.1, 0.5, 1, or 2 mm)
and depth (0.5, 1, or 2 mm) are simulated. The excitation
frequency and current are set as 256 kHz and 380 to match
the experimental setup, which is introduced in Section IV. A
rectangular coil is used in experiments. However, the eddy
currents are induced dominantly by the coil edge which is close
to the sample. Thus, only one edge of the rectangular coil is
simulated, drawn as a cylindrical wire in Fig. 1.
CFRP is an anisotropic material. Both carbon fiber and the
matrix (normally epoxy resin) contribute the electrical and
thermal properties. They vary in different directions due to the
fiber orientation. The electrical conductivities in the longitu-
dinal, transversal and cross-ply directions are set at , ,
and S/m [27]. The thermal diffusivity of the CFRP as mea-
sured in the longitudinal, transversal, and cross-ply directions
are , , m s, respectively, at 20 C
[28]. The density of CFRP is set as 1540 kg/m . The specific
heat is set at 850 J/kg K from the COMSOL Multiphysics
CHENG AND TIAN: SURFACE CRACK DETECTION FOR CFRP MATERIALS USING PEC THERMOGRAPHY 3263

Fig. 2. Simulation results of thermal images at the maximum heating (200 ms)
for w =1 mm, d = 2 mm notch.

simulation package (COMSOL for short) library for granite

(granite: carbon content in excess of 99%).
To solve the EM and heat diffusion problem, COMSOL is
used to perform finite-element method (FEM)-based simulation
via the AC/DC module. The geometry of sample with notch
defects in the numerical simulation is the same as that in the
experiment.
B. Influence of Notch Depth
Fig. 2 shows the temperature distribution in the area around
the notch at the maximum PEC-induced heating time of 200
ms. More heating is observed at the bottom of the notch due to
the increased eddy current density in that area caused by eddy
current diversion around the bottom of the defect. The interac-
tion between the notch and uniform eddy currents in the sample
shows that the eddy currents will always follow the path of least
resistance. Hence, in a sample without a defect, they will be
mainly confined to the surface layer, as defined by the skin depth
formula (1), along the sample thickness. When a discontinuity,
such as a notch, interrupts in the eddy current path, they will
be forced to divert around the bottom of the notch, which leads
to an area of increased eddy current density and a resultant hot
spot at the bottom of the notch. The schematic representation of
eddy current behavior around different types of defect is also
discussed in previous work by Newcastle University and the
University of Bath [29].
As the electric and thermal conductivity of CFRP vary in dif-
ferent directions. As a consequence, variation of the applied EM
field orientation through changes in the excitation coil direction
can be used for the investigation of different layers. Since con-
ductivity is greatest in the fiber direction and fibers are orien-
tated in different directions in different layers, changes in coil
orientation will cause increased current flow in different layers.
Besides, the electric conductivity of CFRP is much smaller than
that of metal. Therefore, the skin depth at 256 kHz (around
9.95 mm through the sample thickness) is much larger than that
of metal (normally less than 0.1 mm for steel). For metallic ma-
terials, the skin depth is normally smaller than the notch depth.
A smaller skin depth causes the eddy currents to be concentrated
at the surface and much denser at the surface edge of the notch.
Conversely, for CFRP, the skin depth is normally larger than
notch depth. A large skin depth results in eddy currents at the
Fig. 3. Simulation results for transient temperature against time at pos 1
shown in Fig. 1 at notch bottom for varied notch depth at notch width w =
1 mm: (a) normalized responses and (b) nonnormalized (raw) responses.
bottom of the notch being denser than that at the surface edge
of the notch, because the notch blocks the surface current flow.
Thus, the temperature rise at the bottom of the notch is higher
than the other regions in the CFRP sample, as shown in the sim-
ulation studies.
For cases where skin depth is larger than sample thickness
at the excitation frequency used in simulation and experiment, a
deeper notch causes more eddy current diversion at the bottom
of the notch than the shallower notch. This effect is illustrated
in the simulation results shown in Fig. 3, where the temperature
rise at the 4-mm-deep notch is larger than that at the shallower
notch. The investigated point in Fig. 3 is marked as pos1 in
Fig. 1. These results agree with experimental results discussed
in the Section IV.
Derived from (2) and (5) using Greens function solution for
a finite body, the estimation of temperature against time for an
infinite length and finite thickness plate can be expressed with
the following two equations, respectively, for the heating phase
[25], [30] and for the cooling phase [31], [32]:
for (6)
for (7)
where is the thermal diffusivity and is the
distance from the evaluated point to the rear side of the sample.
3264 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 11, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2011

Fig. 4. Amplitude of temperature rise (a) versus notch depth d.

For a defect-free sample, is the thickness of the sample; for a

sample with a notch, shown in Fig. 1 for the estimation
in this study; is the duration of the heating pulse.
From (6) and (7), we can use coefficients and to describe
the thermal response. Coefficient is the amplitude of temper-
ature rise determined by local electric conductivity change (in
this case, the eddy current density at the bottom of the notch),
while is the normalized temperature decay rate, determined
by local thermal property changes and notch dimensions etc.
From Fig. 3(b), it can be seen that deeper notch has a greater Fig. 5. Simulation results for transient temperature against time at pos
temperature rise (coefficient ). The relationship between co- 1 shown in Fig. 1 at notch bottom for varied notch width at notch depth
efficient and notch depth is illustrated in Fig. 4. It implies
=
d 2 mm: (a) normalized responses and (b) nonnomalized (raw) responses.
that a deeper notch will interact with and change the course of
more eddy currents. Therefore, a deeper notch leads to larger
temperature rise in the heating phase. However, after the nor-
malization of the transient temperature change with time for the
same width and varied depth notches, a convergence of the tran-
sient temperature change is obtained for the heating phase, as
shown in Fig. 3(a). It shows that notch depth does not affect the
normalized transient heating behavior. As for coefficient , it
is clearer to investigate after the normalization of the tempera-
ture curve, as shown in Fig. 3(a). The results indicate the deeper
notch has a faster temperature decay in the cooling phase, as
larger (smaller , where ) results in larger value,
which matches (7). In conclusion, when the notch width is fixed,
a deeper notch leads to the higher temperature rise in the heating
phase at the bottom of the notch (coefficient ) and a faster tem- Fig. 6. Experimental setup.
perature decay in the cooling phase (coefficient ).
Although depth information can be derived from transient
bottom of the notch due to the notch geometry change. This im-
temperature change with time in both the heating and cooling
plies that the narrower notch will force eddy currents to divert
phases, the coefficients and can also be used for width in-
around a narrower area at the notch bottom. Thus, a narrower
vestigation.
notch leads to a greater temperature rise [seen in Fig. 5(b)], as
C. Influence of Notch Width well as a greater rate of change in temperature in the early stages
of the heating phase [seen in Fig. 5(a)]. As for coefficient , it is
As the simulation results presented in the previous section clearer to investigate after the normalization of the temperature
closely agree with the experimental results, it is feasible to use curve, shown in Fig. 5(a). The results also indicate that the nar-
simulations to predict the impact of notch width on thermal rower notch has faster temperature decay in the cooling phase,
responses. The transient temperature changes against time for as larger results in smaller value.
varied notch widths are shown in Fig. 5(b), where the figure
indicates that the maximum amplitude of temperature change IV. EXPERIMENTS
increases as becomes smaller. Unlike the notch depth in-
fluence, the variation of notch width not only changes the A. Induction Heating System
amplitude of eddy current density (as notch depth influence in The experimental setup is illustrated in Fig. 6. An Easyheat
the Section III-B), but also the eddy current distribution at the 224 from Cheltenham Induction Heating is used for coil excita-
CHENG AND TIAN: SURFACE CRACK DETECTION FOR CFRP MATERIALS USING PEC THERMOGRAPHY
Fig. 7. Thermal image of sample at maximum heating for (a) horizontal and (b) vertical current excitation.
tion. The Easyheat has a maximum excitation power of 2.4 kW,
a maximum current of 400 and an excitation frequency
range of 150400 kHz (380 and 256 kHz are used in the
experiments). In general, high excitation frequencies will lead
to high thermal contrast (or high temperature rise). The time-do-
main information will allow the derivation of defect profile in-
formation. The system has a quoted rise time (from the start of
the heating period to full power) of 5 ms, which was verified
experimentally. Water cooling of coil is implemented to coun-
teract direct heating of the coil.
The SC7500 is a Stirling cooled camera with a 320 256
array of 1.55 m InSb detectors, shown in Fig. 6. The camera
has a sensitivity of 20 mK and a maximum full frame rate of
383 Hz. The maximum 383-Hz frame rate provides one frame
every 2.6 ms, with the option to increase the frame rate with
windowing of the image. In our studies, a high-speed thermal
camera is used for investigation including feature optimization
for QNDE. However, in real applications, it may be unnecessary
to use such a high-end camera.
The rectangular coil is constructed from a 6.35-mm high-con-
ductivity hollow copper tube. The coil is selected to introduce
parallel eddy currents in the direction of maximum conductivity
in the sample, as determined in Section IV-B.
A 200-ms heating duration is selected for inspection, which
is long enough to elicit an observable heat pattern around the
notch. The rectangular coil is fixed and the sample can be
moved. In this study, notches with different depths are placed at
the same position with respect to the coil for each test. In addi-
tion, normalization of transient temperature change is applied,
using division of the transient temperature by the temperature
at maximum heating. Therefore, the liftoff influence can be
eliminated.
B. Directional Conductivity Experiment
As CFRP exhibits directional conductivity, dependent on the
fiber orientation in the composite, coil orientation has a large im-
pact on experimental results. Thus, before inspecting the sample
for defects, the directional (horizontal and vertical) conductivity
is first ascertained. This allows optimization of the direction of
3265
the applied field and notch direction to achieve the best temper-
ature contrast between the regions with and without defects.
Two coil directions with respect to the sample surface, hori-
zontal [Fig. 7(a)] and vertical [Fig. 7(b)], are investigated. For
horizontal coil orientation, the eddy currents are following in a
horizontal direction, hence, the conductivity of Exel sample in
horizontal direction is investigated in this case. For vertical coil
direction, the conductivity of Exel sample in the vertical direc-
tion is investigated.
Fig. 7(a) and (b) shows the thermal image in terms of digital
level (DL) after 2 s of heating using horizontal and vertical coil
directions, respectively. As a reference, the temperature changes
at the coil in Fig. 7(a) and (b) are similar. From the compar-
ison of these two excitation directions, it can be seen that the
increase in temperature at the sample surface with the coil ori-
entated vertically is much larger than when the coil is orientated
horizontally. According to (2), it can be concluded that the con-
ductivity in the vertical direction is much larger than that in the
horizontal direction. Thus, it can be ascertained the fiber orien-
tation is in the vertical direction, as the conductivity is greater
along the fiber orientation.
With awareness of the fiber orientation, the coil orientation is
fixed in the vertical direction in the following experiments.
C. Influence of Notch Depth
PEC thermography was used to inspect the sample shown in
Fig. 1. The 350 mm 38 mm 6 mm CFRP sample contains
three notches with a width of 1 mm, varying in depth from 0.5 to
2 mm. The notches are manufactured in the workshop at New-
castle University.
The sample was heated for 200 ms using the rectangular coil
shown in Fig. 6. Images were acquired for a total of 500 ms (200
ms heating followed by 300-ms cooling) at the maximum frame
data acquisition rate of 383 fps.
Notches with different depths were inspected while retaining
the same positional relationship between notch and coil. As an
example the thermal image at the maximum heating time for a
2-mm-deep notch is shown in Fig. 8.
The transient temperature change at the same point at the
bottom of the notch and close to the coil, marked as pos 1
3266
Fig. 8. Experimental results of thermal image at the maximum heating
(200 ms) for a 2-mm-deep and 1-mm-wide notch; unit: digital level.
Fig. 9. Experimental results for transient temperature change against time at
pos 1 shown in Fig. 7 at notch bottom for w = 1 mm and varied depth notches:
(a) normalized responses and (b) nonnormalized (raw) responses.
shown in Fig. 8, is investigated. The thermal responses for
varied notch depths are shown in Fig. 9. From the comparison
of the thermal responses at the investigated point for three
notches shown in Fig. 9, it can be ascertained that the deeper
the notch is, the greater the increase in temperature, because
the eddy currents are concentrated at the bottom of the notch
when notch depth is smaller than skin depth. The relationship
between notch depth and transient temperature change from
experimental results agrees with that from simulation results
illustrated in Fig. 3(a) and (b). From Fig. 9, we can find the am-
plitude of the temperature rise (coefficient ) for a 2-mm-deep
notch is the largest due to highest eddy current density at
the bottom of the notch. From the comparison of by the
normalized transient temperature behavior shown in Fig. 9(a),
we can see that the temperature decay rate for the 2 mm deep
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 11, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2011
Fig. 10. Varied distance between the coil and 2-mm-deep notch: excitation cur-
rent in length direction: (a) 2-cm coil-notch distance and (b) 8-cm coil-notch
distance. (c) Diagram of the position between the coil and the notch.
notch is the largest. Because in (7) for a 2-mm-deep notch is
the smallest ( ), the value for the 2-mm-deep notch
is the smallest among the three notches. Therefore, the notch
depth can be discriminated by coefficients and .
D. Notch Position Invariance Along the Fiber Direction
The variation in thermal response with a varied distance be-
tween the notch and the coil along the direction of the fiber is
investigated in this section. As the fiber orientation is identified
in Section IV-A, in the experiment, the mutual position between
the notch and the coil is changed by moving the coil, shown in
Fig. 10(c). Thermal videos are captured at different notch po-
sitions with respect to the coil. A 1-mm-wide and 2-mm-deep
notch is tested in this experiment.
When the distance between the coil and the 2-mm notch
is increased to 8 cm, heating of the notch can still be seen,
but the temperature variation is less than one third of that for
the 2-cm distance between the coil and the notch, shown in
Fig. 10(a) and (b). To compare the influence of notch location,
0-, 2-, and 8-cm coil-notch distances are tested. The normalized
CHENG AND TIAN: SURFACE CRACK DETECTION FOR CFRP MATERIALS USING PEC THERMOGRAPHY
Fig. 11. Thermal response at notch bottom versus distance between coil and
notch: (a) normalized responses and (b) nonnormalized (raw) responses.
and nonnormalized thermal responses at the notch bottom are
shown in Fig. 11.
It can be ascertained from the results that, the location of the
notch only influences the amplitude of the temperature change
in the heating phase, as seen in Fig. 11(b). The interaction be-
tween eddy currents and the notch can still be seen when the
coil-notch distance increases to 8 cm. However, the attenuation
of the eddy current leads to a reduction in the amplitude of the
temperature change against the distance between coil and notch
[Fig. 10(b)]. The temperature rise and decay rate after normal-
ization is not affected, as shown in Fig. 10(a), because the notch
shape and dimensions are not changed. Therefore, the transient
temperature change with time at varied notch positions in both
the heating and cooling phase is not changed.
Unfortunately, the time delay of thermal or eddy current prop-
agation from the region beneath the coil to the notch cannot be
observed in thermal videos, because the propagation velocities
of the thermal wave and eddy currents are in the order of 10 m/s
and 10 m/s, respectively. The time delay of either thermal wave
or eddy current is much shorter than the minimum detectable
time interval from the thermal camera (2.6 ms).
V. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
In this paper, a PEC thermography system has been proposed
and, for the first time, implemented for notch detection in CFRP
3267
samples. The method allows the user to observe the eddy cur-
rent distribution in a structure using infrared imaging and detect
defects over a relatively wide area. Both numerical simulations
and experimental investigations have been performed. Direc-
tional conductivity in CFRP makes the eddy current distribution
different from metallic materials. The notch as a surface crack
was detected and observed using PEC thermography through
both simulation and experiment. It has been proven that the PEC
thermography technique is feasible for surface defect detection
in low conductivity composite materials and is not limited to
the sample surface, such as in flash thermography. Through the
simulation and experimental results shown in Figs. 2 and 8, re-
spectively, it can be seen that the heat is mainly generated at the
notch.
The influences of notch depth, width, and position are investi-
gated in terms of the amplitude of the temperature rise and tran-
sient temperature behaviors in the heating and cooling phases,
respectively. The conclusions can be drawn as follows.
Notch depth: the relationship between the notch depth and
transient temperature change shows that a deeper notch
leads to a greater temperature rise at the bottom of the
notch. A deeper notch results in a faster normalized tem-
perature decay rate in the cooling phase, but the normalized
transient temperature behavior in the heating phase is not
affected.
Notch width: The results show that narrower notches lead
to not only a greater temperature rise, but faster temper-
ature rise and decay rate at the beginning of the heating
phase and in the cooling phase, respectively.
Notch position invariance with fiber direction: the same
notch at different locations with respect to the coil only
influences the amplitude of the temperature change. The
normalized heating and cooling transient temperature be-
haviors are not changed.
Thus, based on the amplitude of the temperature rise, the
heating and cooling thermal response, the notch width and depth
can be determined for feature extraction and QNDE. In future
work, further investigations on natural cracks will be under-
taken in the future. In addition, work on subsurface defects like
delaminations and impact damages rather than surface defects
(notches) will be carried out and the relationship between de-
lamination size, location and transient temperature change will
be investigated for QNDE. Finally, the maximum standoff dis-
tance will also be investigated further.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Prof. S. Yang, Sichuan Uni-
versity, China, and Associate Prof. Y. Li, Xian Jiaotong Univer-
sity, China, for their useful discussions. In addition, the authors
also would like to thank Exel Composites UK for providing the
samples used in the experiments.
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Liang Cheng was born in Beijing, China, in 1985.
He received the B.Sc. degree in electronics from
Peking University, Beijing, China, in 2007, and
the M.Sc. degree in communications and signal
processing from Imperial College London, London,
U.K., in 2008. He is currently working toward
the Ph.D. degree in failure models and life cycle
assessment of wind turbine systems at Newcastle
University, Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K.
He is currently working on future reliable renew-
able energy conversion systems and networks: a col-
laborative UK-China project, which is in collaboration with five U.K. univer-
sities (Durham University, Edinburgh University, Newcastle University, Not-
tingham University, and Warwick University), U.K. industry, five Chinese uni-
versities, one research institute, and three Chinese organizations.
Gui Yun Tian (M01SM03) received the B.Sc. de-
gree in metrology and instrumentation and M.Sc. de-
gree in precision engineering from the University of
Sichuan, Chengdu, China, in 1985 and 1988, respec-
tively, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of
Derby, Derby, U.K., in 1998.
He then became a Research Fellow and Senior Re-
search Fellow with the University of Derby and the
University of East Anglia, U.K. From 2000 to 2006,
he was a Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader, Professor,
and Head of the group of Systems Engineering, re-
spectively, with the University of Huddersfield, U.K. Since 2007, he has been
based at Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K., where he has been
Chair Professor in Sensor Technologies and M.Sc. Program Director of Ad-
vanced Sensor Technology. Currently, he is Group Head of Communications
and Signal Processing in the School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer En-
gineering, Newcastle University. He has coordinated several research projects
from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Royal
Academy of Engineering and FP7, on top of this he also has good collaboration
with leading industrial companies such as Airbus, Rolls Royce, BP, nPower and
TWI among others.
Dr. Tian is a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, U.K., and In-
stNDT. He was the recipient of the John Grimwade Award from the British
Institute of Non-Destructive Testing. He is also a Chinese Changjiang scholar
and as well as being on several editorial boards of international journals.