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Updated: Aug 17, 2025

Crack Monitoring in Resonance Fatigue Testing of Welded Specimens Using Digital Image Correlation
Published on: September 29, 2019
Combined Acoustic Emission and Digital Image Correlation for Early Detection and Measurement of Fatigue Cracks in
Alexander Machikhin1,2, Anton Poroykov1, Vladimir Bardakov1,3
1Moscow Power Engineering Institute, 14, Krasnokazarmennaya Str., 111250 Moscow, Russia.
Abstract:
Fatigue crack in rails and cyclic-loaded train parts is a contributory factor in multiple railroad accidents. We address the problem of crack detection and measurement at early stages, when total failure has not yet occurred. We propose to combine acoustic emission (AE) testing for prediction of crack growth with digital image correlation (DIC) for its accurate quantitative characterization. In this study, we imitated fatigue crack appearance and growth in samples of railway rail and two train parts by cyclic loading, and applied these two techniques for inspection. Experimental results clearly indicate the efficiency of AE in the early detection of fatigue cracks, and excellent DIC capabilities in terms of geometrical measurements. Combination of these techniques reveals a promising basis for real-time and non-destructive monitoring of rails and train parts.
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