Evaluation of detection capability of eddy current probes with stochastic decision threshold for inspecting pits on austenitic stainless steel welding

Abstract

It is still a big challenge to calculate the probability of defect detection for inspecting pits on austenitic stainless steel welding using traditional POD models. Because we determine the decision threshold, the POD curve has a lot of changes as the decision threshold changes, there is no clear reason to insist which threshold is reasonable. This study proposes a new probability of detection (POD) model to quantitatively assess the detection capability of eddy current probes for inspecting pits on austenitic stainless steel welding. The experimental results show that the proposed model is more reasonable than traditional ones. The novel POD model was employed to analyze three eddy current probes, uniform, TR, plus-point probes on austenitic stainless steel welding. The results reveal that the uniform eddy current probe has the best detection capability for inspecting pits on among the three probes.