Optics and Lasers in Engineering 33 (2000) 323}333

Detection of fatigue damage in steel

using laser speckle
Akira Kato*
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Chubu University, 1200 Matsumoto-cho, Kasugai, Aichi 487-8501,
Japan
Received 5 June 2000; accepted 18 August 2000

Abstract

We investigated a method to detect fatigue damage of steels without contact using laser
speckle. In the earlier stage of fatigue in steels, slipbands appear on the surface and microscopic
shear strain is stored in the slipbands. The slipbands appear more densely with progress of
fatigue damage. When a laser illuminates the surface of the fatigued steel, light intensity
distribution of the laser speckle pattern formed by the re#ected light changes with the change of
surface properties caused by slipbands. It has been clari"ed that the width of the speckle pattern
broadens corresponding to spatial frequency distribution of the surface pro"le and thus it is
presumed that speckle pattern broadens with increase of slipband density. This shows that we
can detect fatigue damage by observing the laser speckle pattern on material surface. The
method presented in this paper is based on this phenomenon. We observed change of the
speckle pattern during fatigue loading under constant stress amplitude using a steel specimen
and the relation between speckle pattern, number of loading cycles and also magnitude of
loading was considered. We investigated the possibility of detection of fatigue damage using this
method and also proposed a method to estimate fatigue life by observing change tendency of
the speckle pattern depending on the number of loading cycles in the earlier stage of fatigue
before crack initiation.  2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Non-destructive Testing; Fatigue; Optical method; Material evaluation; Image processing

1. Introduction
The author and his co-worker have been working on evaluating plastic strain of
steels using laser speckle, when specimens are plastically deformed by static tension.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: #81-568-51-1111; fax: #81-568-51-1194.

E-mail address: katoa@isc.chubu.ac.jp (A. Kato).

0143-8166/00/$ - see front matter  2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 1 4 3 - 8 1 6 6 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 5 8 - 0
324 A. Kato / Optics and Lasers in Engineering 33 (2000) 323}333

Fig. 1. Test specimen (cyclic tension).

From our previous work, it was found that the laser speckle pattern changes depend-
ing on surface change caused by occurrence of slipbands due to plastic deformation
and light intensity distribution of the speckle pattern relates closely to spatial fre-
quency distribution of the surface pro"le [1}4]. When steel specimens are subjected to
cyclic loading, slipbands appear on the specimen surface by fatigue. The density of the
slipbands increases with progress of fatigue damage and then initial cracks appear in
the persistent slipbands. This means that the slipband density will increase and the
ratio of higher frequency component in surface pro"le will increase depending on
increase of loading cycles and thus the light intensity distribution of the laser speckle
pattern will expand with the progress of fatigue damage. It is presumed that fatigue
damage can be evaluated using this laser speckle method [5}7].
In this study, we investigated the relation between light intensity distribution of the
laser speckle pattern and surface properties for specimens subjected to cyclic tensile
loading using steel specimens. Light intensity distribution of the laser speckle pattern
was observed with the increase of the number of loading cycles under a constant stress
amplitude and experimental equations were derived to express the relation between
light intensity distribution of the speckle pattern and the progress of fatigue damage
and also relation between change rate of the speckle pattern depending on loading
cycles and fatigue life. We investigated a method to estimate fatigue life by observing
laser speckle pattern based on these equations.

2. Experimental procedure

The material used in this experiment is a steel for general structure, SS330 (JIS). The
specimen is a strip with circular notches with large radius at both sides as shown in
Fig. 1. As the notch radius is large, stress distribution at the center is considered to be
almost uniform. The surface of the specimen was polished "nally with aluminum
dioxide powder in random direction so that the surface properties became macro-
scopically isotropic and uniform. The initial surface roughness was about 0.1 lm Ra.
The specimens were loaded by uniaxial cyclic tension with a minimum load of 0 N.
Then a laser illuminated the center of the specimen as shown in Fig. 1 and speckle
pattern was observed.
Fig. 2 shows the layout of the experimental system. A He}Ne laser illuminates the
specimen surface. The diameter of the laser beam is about 1 mm. Laser speckle pattern
 A. Kato / Optics and Lasers in Engineering 33 (2000) 323}333 325

Fig. 2. Experimental system.

is formed on the ground glass placed in front of the specimen as a screen. Image of the
speckle pattern is taken with a CCD video camera and put into the image-processing
system. The resolution of the image used is 640;480 pixels. The speckle pattern can
be analyzed quantitatively using this image-processing system. Details of the experi-
mental system have been reported in our previous papers [1}4].

3. Change of the laser speckle pattern under fatigue

Fig. 3 shows surface pro"le diagrams of a specimen. This specimen has been loaded
with a stress amplitude of p "150 MPa. The "gures are surface pro"les after loading
with the number of loading cycles being N"0, 2;10 and 12;10 cycles, respective-
ly. The "gures show that surface roughness increases due to increase of slipband
density as the number of loading cycles increases.
Fig. 4 shows the light intensity distribution on the u-axis (the coordinate axis is
shown in Fig. 2) of speckle patterns for the same number of loading cycles as in Fig. 3.
The "gures show that light intensity distribution expands with increase of the number
of loading cycles. It is considered that speckle pattern changes depending on surface
change caused by increase of the slipband density by comparing with Fig. 3. It is
presumed that we can evaluate fatigue damage by observing the change in the width of
the speckle pattern.
The method to evaluate the width of the speckle pattern has already been reported
by the authors [5}7]. The method is summarized as follows. First, to smooth the
gray-level distribution and make clear the characteristics of the distribution, nor-
malized correlation function was calculated between image data of whole image plane
and inside the circular window of radius r"20 pixels at the center of gravity of the
gray-level distribution as shown in Fig. 5. This calculation is expressed by the
following equation,

P ! g(i, j)g(i#h, j#k)

w(h, k)" H\P PG\! ! .
g(i, j)
H\P G\!
326 A. Kato / Optics and Lasers in Engineering 33 (2000) 323}333

Fig. 3. Surface pro"le diagrams of specimen (p "150 MPa).

Fig. 4. Light intensity distribution of laser speckle patterns (p "150 MPa).

 A. Kato / Optics and Lasers in Engineering 33 (2000) 323}333 327

Fig. 5. Window to calculate correlation function.

Fig. 6. Correlation function of light intensity distribution.

Here, C"(r!j, i and j are coordinates taking the origin at centroid of the
gray-level distribution. h and k are o!set to calculate the correlation function. g(i, j) is
gray level at a point (i, j). Distribution of the correlation function in the radial
direction is shown in Fig. 6. This distribution can be approximated with an exponen-
tial function. The radius at which the exponential function takes the value of 0.25 is
considered and we take this value as the parameter to express the width of the speckle
pattern. We indicate this parameter as B .

Fatigue tests were made under seven di!erent stress amplitudes from 140 to
170 MPa and laser speckle pattern was observed during the fatigue test. Fig. 7 shows
the relationship between the parameter B and the number of loading cycles N for each

328 A. Kato / Optics and Lasers in Engineering 33 (2000) 323}333

Fig. 7. Relationship between width of speckle pattern B and number of loading cycles N.


stress amplitude. The "gure shows that the value of B is large for larger stress

amplitude. When stress amplitude is large, slipbands appear densely. In this case, the
rate of high-frequency component in surface pro"le diagram increases and then laser
speckle pattern expands. The increase in the rate of B due to increase of loading

cycles is larger for larger stress amplitude. When stress amplitude is small, B is very

small and does not increase from the initial value in the beginning of loading cycles.
This is because slipbands were not produced or slipbands did not appear at the point
where the laser illuminated since slipbands occur as a thin line in the earlier stage of
fatigue, and B increases markedly before the "nal fracture. Macroscopic cracks

appear at this stage and the slipband density increases rapidly near the crack tip due
to crack growth. As the crack tip approaches the specimen center, large plastic
deformation occurs and speckle pattern expands rapidly.

4. Fatigue life estimation

Fig. 8 shows the relationship between B and N in log scale. Experimental data in

the earlier stage of fatigue and in the "nal stage of fracture are eliminated in the "gure.
It is found that there are almost linear relationships between log(B ) and log(N) for all

the stress amplitudes. The relation between B and N is expressed by the following

equation.
log B "S#¹ log(N). (1)

This equation is reduced to
B "SN2, (2)

where S"101Y. The coe$cients, S and ¹ can be obtained from the experimental data
shown in Fig. 8 by the least-squares method.
 A. Kato / Optics and Lasers in Engineering 33 (2000) 323}333 329

Fig. 8. B versus N (in log scale).



The relationship between coe$cient ¹ and stress amplitude p is shown in Fig. 9(a).
The "gure shows that di!erence of ¹ depending on p is small. We assume that ¹ is
constant and take the average value, ¹"0.181. Taking ¹"0.181, the relationship
between coe$cient S and p is shown in Fig. 9(b). It is found that there is a linear
relationship between S and p in log scale. Thus, this relation is expressed by the
following equation.
log S"A#C log(p ). (3)
This equation is reduced to
S"Ap!, (4)
?
where A"10Y. The coe$cients A and C can be obtained by the least-squares method
from the data in Fig. 9(b) and the coe$cients are A"1.04;10\ and C"7.91.
The coe$cient S describes increase rate of B to number of loading cycles and

changes depending on stress amplitude p . Next, we considered fatigue life N of the

specimens used in the experiment shown in Fig. 7 and obtained the relation between
S and N . Fig. 10 shows the relationship between S and N from the experimental
 
data. It is found that there is almost a linear relationship between S and log(N ) in log

scale and the relation is expressed by the following equation,
log S"F#G log(log(N )). (5)

This equation is reduced to
S"F(log(N ))%, (6)

where, F"10$Y. This equation can be rewritten as follows:
N "101$%. (7)

330 A. Kato / Optics and Lasers in Engineering 33 (2000) 323}333

Fig. 9. Coe$cients ¹ and S.

The coe$cients F and G can be obtained from the experimental data and calculated as
F"6.93;10 and G"!10.5. Thus N can be obtained from the value of S. If we

observe the laser speckle pattern during fatigue test of an object material and obtain
the coe$cient S from B !N relation as shown in Fig. 8, we can estimate fatigue life

N of the object based on Eq. (7).

We applied the above method to the fatigue life estimation using the experimental
data shown in Fig. 7. Results of estimation in the cases of p "145 and 140 MPa are
shown in Table 1(a) and (b), respectively. From the experimental data for
p "145 MPa in Fig. 7, if we use the "rst nine data, coe$cient S in Eq. (1) can be
calculated as 1.19 by the least-squares method and then fatigue life can be estimated as
N "3.44;10 from Eq. (7). The actual fatigue life of this specimen was

N "3.47;10. The number of loading cycles of the "rst nine data is smaller than

1.6;10 and this is smaller than half of the fatigue life. If we use the "rst six data,
coe$cient S is calculated as 1.20 and fatigue life is estimated as N "3.39;10 from

Eq. (7). The number of loading cycles of the six data is smaller than 1.0;10 (1/3 of the
 A. Kato / Optics and Lasers in Engineering 33 (2000) 323}333 331

Fig. 10. Relationship between coe$cient S and fatigue life N .



Table 1
Fatigue life estimation

Experimental data used S calculated N estimated N measured

 
by Eq. (7)
N Number
of data

(a) p "145 MPa


N 9 1.19 3.44;10
N)1.6;10 ( 
2


N 6 1.20 3.39;10 3.47;10
N)1.0;10 ( 
3


N 4 1.21 3.37;10
N)08;10 ( 
4

(b) p "140 MPa


N 6 1.09 3.81;10
N)1.2;10 ( 
2


N 4 1.13 3.65;10 2.68;10
N)0.8;10 ( 
3


N 3 1.11 3.71;10
N)0.6;10 ( 
4

fatigue life). Also, if we use the data of the loading cycles less than 1/4 of the fatigue
life, the estimated fatigue life is N "3.37;10. The estimated fatigue life is very close

to the actual one and the maximum di!erence from the actual fatigue life is less than
3%. In the case of p "140 MPa, we can estimate fatigue life in the same manner. The
332 A. Kato / Optics and Lasers in Engineering 33 (2000) 323}333

results of the estimation are shown in Table 1(b). In Table 1(b), Eq. (7) estimates
fatigue life N at about 1;10 longer than the actual one.

These results show that Eq. (7) gives a very close value to the actual fatigue life in the
case of p "145 MPa, but it gives a little larger value in the case of p "140 MPa.
Scatter of the fatigue life was very large in this experiment. As shown in Table 1(a) and
(b), fatigue life for p "145 MPa is longer than that of p "140 MPa. If we take into
account that scatter of the fatigue life of the specimen is large, we can say that fatigue
life was estimated by this method with su$cient accuracy. It is very e!ective so that we
can estimate fatigue life in the earlier stage of fatigue, such as 1/4 of fatigue life.

5. Conclusions

In this study, we investigated a method to estimate fatigue life using laser speckle.
We observed change of speckle pattern during fatigue of steel specimen and we
derived an experimental equation to express the relation between width of speckle
pattern and number of loading cycles; also, we derived an experimental equation
between tendency of change of speckle pattern and stress amplitude. We devised
a method to estimate fatigue life based on these relationships. It was shown that
estimation using this method is accurate enough within scatter of fatigue life of steel
specimens. In this kind of method for fatigue life estimation, it is better if the
estimation is possible at earlier stage of fatigue in general. In this method, estimation
of fatigue life is possible in the very early stage, such as, earlier than 1/4 of fatigue life.
This is very e!ective for actual use.
It is possible to esimate fatigue life without contact using this method. The
non-contact method is very useful for practical applications. In this method, we
observe surface change due to fatigue by the laser speckle pattern. As fatigue damage
is kept on material surface, observation of the laser speckle pattern is possible anytime
and anywhere. That is, on-site measurement is possible and measurement in a laborat-
ory (o!-site) is possible as well, after we take o! the machine parts and bring them into
a laboratory. This means that there is a possibility of applying this method to machine
parts which are working inside a machine by dissolving the machine after fatigue
loading.

Acknowledgements

The work has been supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scienti"c Research (1998 and
1999) by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Japan.

References

[1] Kato A, Kawamura M. Damage monitoring of metal materials by the laser speckle method (measure-
ment of plastic strain). Proceedings of Asia Paci"c Conference on Fracture and Strength, Vol. 93, 1993.
p. 379.
 A. Kato / Optics and Lasers in Engineering 33 (2000) 323}333 333

[2] Kato A, Kawamura M. Measurement of plastic strain in steel specimens by means of intensity
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[3] Kato A, Kawamura M, Nakaya I. Damage monitoring of metal materials by laser speckle assisted by
image processing techniques (relationship between distribution of laser speckle and surface properties).
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[4] Kato A, Kawamura M, Ito K. Measurement of plastic strain in steel materials by laser speckle
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[5] Kato A, Kawamura M. Damage evaluation of steels by laser speckle. Proceedings of conference on
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[6] Kato A, Ito K. Damage evaluation using laser speckle sensor. Proceedings of the international
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[7] Kato A, Ito K. Damage evaluation of fatigue using laser speckle sensor. Proceedings of the VIII
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