Fatigue cracks could occur in the material of offshore and marine structures that are cyclically loaded. These cracks occur due to the cyclic stresses induced by the waves causing premature failure. Monitoring these fatigue cracks using a wireless system gives the opportunity to guarantee the integrity of the structure without manual inspection, making this a safer way of inspection. In addition, inspection is very costly due to the man hours and because of the fact that the locations of fatigue cracks are mostly not easily accessible. Also, visual evaluation of the crack length can be difficult to assess, which could result in early retirement of structures or unnecessary and costly maintenance. A wireless crack monitoring system based on the Self Magnetic Flux Leakage (SMFL) method could be a solution for this problem. This method suggests that the ferromagnetic material is passively magnetized by the Earth’s magnetic field and the magnetic signal changes when a crack appears in the material. The measured data is sent wirelessly to the control room of the marine structure. Here, the data can be assessed to determine the size of the fatigue crack. With this information, it can be decided what course of action should be taken to ensure the integrity of the marine structure as long as possible. This will result in a safer way of working and being economically more efficient. For accurate crack sizing, the SMFL must be interpreted correctly. During cyclic loading the stresses in the material change, affecting the magnetic signal. This is called the stress-induced magnetization. The aim of this research 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. The measured stress magnetization curves are obtained by means of an experiment. In this experiment, a steel plate with an elliptical hole is cyclically loaded up to the yield stress. The magnetic signal is measured in a grid around the hole. The results show a maximum variation of 25 µT. Depending on the application, the stress-induced magnetization may need to be considered for the interpretation of the measured signals for crack monitoring using the SMFL method.

Fatigue crack monitoring is essential to Ship and Offshore structures, in order to guarantee structural integrity and safety on board. Regular inspections, which are currently performed manually are hazardous, costly and infrequent. The CrackGuard JIP has the goal of developing a system for reliable monitoring of fatigue cracks based on the characteristic magnetic pattern that occurs around a fatigue crack as a result of magnetization by the Earth magnetic field. This method, which is called the Self Magnetic Flux Leakage method, makes use of the disturbance caused by a fatigue crack on the magnetic flux inside the material and can be detected by a leakage pattern of this magnetic flux around the fatigue crack. The application of the self magnetic flux leakage method for fatigue crack monitoring on a full-scale structures demonstrates that the method is very suitable for monitoring fatigue cracks in ship and offshore structures. The amplitude of the observed flux leakage pattern is increased by the large amount of ferromagnetic materials in these structures, which improves crack monitoring and even allows for the tracking of a propagating fatigue crack on the bases of the obtained measurement results.