Surface Flaw Detection of Plug Valve Material Using Infrared Thermography and Weighted Local Variation Pixel-Based Fuzzy Clustering Technique

Table 1

Applicability and novelty of the proposed work.

Technique	Applicability	Remarks
Eddy current testing	Partially applicable	Detects subsurface flaws only up to 1 mm deep [1]
X-ray	Limited/not applicable	Flaws are not orthogonal to the radiation pattern. Operator at risk since exposed to radiation [1]
Ultrasonic inspection	Limited/impossible	Lack of proper coupling between the probe and the material leads to severe echoing of signals and false alarms, thus misleading the inspection process [2]
Magnetic particle inspection	Not applicable	Inability to test nonferrous materials. Large currents are required that result in burning of the testing parts. Demagnetization is an issue [3]
Dye penetrant inspection	Applicable	Provides on-suite inspection. Lesser processing time with efficient results. Inexpensive in comparison with other NDT techniques