VibroSim: A hybrid computational/empirical model of vibrothermography nondestructive evaluation

Vibrothermography is a nondestructive evaluation technique that finds cracks through vibration-induced heating of contacting crack surfaces. Because there are multiple phenomena involved: vibration, vibration-induced heating, and heat flow, all three processes must be accurately represented in individually tested components in order to create a meaningful model of the entire process. Finite element models are suitable for the well-understood vibrational and heat flow modeling components. With the phenomenology of the heat generation component still unclear, an empirical model was used to relate the dynamic engineering strain from the vibration to the crack heating itself. All three components are integrated into a single COMSOL model generated by a collection of MATLAB scripts.