Wireless crack monitoring on ships and offshore structures based on Self Magnetic Flux Leakage (SMFL) measurements is a promising method to guarantee the structural integrity in a more effective way, leading to reduced operational costs and increased safety. For accurate crack sizing, the SMFL measurements must be interpreted correctly, also during cyclic loading. Not much research has been done that focus on the effect of high cyclic stresses on the magnetization of ferromagnetic steels in weak magnetic fields. The aim of the research presented in this paper is to investigate the effect of stress-induced magnetization on the SMFL in the stress concentration zone of a structural steel plate, and its implications for crack monitoring by the SMFL method. By means of an experiment, measured stress magnetization curves were obtained in a grid of points around an elliptical hole in a steel plate that was cyclically loaded up to the yield stress. The results show that the stress-induced magnetization causes a maximum variation of the measured signal of 25 μT, which is fully reversible. It is concluded that, depending on the application, this stress-induced variation may need to be taken into account for the interpretation of the measured signals by a crack monitoring system using the SMFL method.

The metal magnetic memory method is a novel technique for monitoring fatigue cracks in steel structures, which can reduce operational expenses and increase safety by minimizing inspections. The crack geometry can be identified by measuring the self magnetic flux leakage, which is induced by the Earth's magnetic field and the permanent magnetization. The finite element method can be used to simulate the induced magnetic field around cracks to help interpret the self magnetic flux leakage measurements, but it is unclear what material properties to use. This study aims to determine the magnetic permeability of structural steel for accurate simulation of the induced magnetic field around cracks by the finite element method. The induced magnetic field was extracted from measurements above two square steel plates, one without defect and one with a straight slit, and compared with finite element results in function of the relative permeability. For both plates, a uniform relative permeability could be found for which experimental and numerical results were in good agreement. For the plate without defect and a relative permeability of 350, errors were within 20% and were concentrated around the plate's edges. For the plate with the slit and a relative permeability of 225, errors were within 5%.

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