Numerical simulation of electrical non-destructive testing of metals for flaw detection via the finite difference method

Authors

  • Jophy Lin Science & Engineering Magnet Program , Manalapan High School image/svg+xml
  • Sagarika Yagnyeshwaran Science & Engineering Magnet Program , Manalapan High School image/svg+xml
  • Rishith Chandra Kilaru Science & Engineering Magnet Program , Manalapan High School image/svg+xml
  • Srilekha Dantu Science & Engineering Magnet Program , Manalapan High School image/svg+xml
  • Vijita Ayyangar Science & Engineering Magnet Program , Manalapan High School image/svg+xml

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.64804/z4c41213

Keywords:

computational, 3D printing, finite difference, conductivity, Laplace's equation, Poisson's equation, finite difference method, successive over-relaxation, Gauss-Seidel, Python

Abstract

The detection of internal flaws in a 3D-printed metal sample was simulated using a non-destructive testing (NDT) approach on a 2D grid. A finite difference method on a square grid of size 60 x 60 nodes was used to compute the electric potential across the material, and Successive Over-Relaxation (SOR) was applied to efficiently solve the linear equations. By iterating over the finite difference grid and updating the electric potential at each point until a set tolerance was reached, changes in voltage across the material became apparent. Regions with significant positive and negative voltage deviations indicated the presence and location of a crack near the center of the domain of the conductivity map. This method matters because it demonstrates how computational techniques can be used to detect defects in metal components without physically damaging them, which is useful in manufacturing and materials inspection.

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Published

2026-04-10

Data Availability Statement

A Jupyter notebook with finite difference code is available at https://github.com/usernnamee/NDT-Testing-SOR. Data are also available at https://github.com/devangel77b/427syagnyeshwaran-lab3.

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Lin, J., Yagnyeshwaran, S., Kilaru, R., Dantu, S., & Ayyangar, V. (2026). Numerical simulation of electrical non-destructive testing of metals for flaw detection via the finite difference method. Journal of Science & Engineering, 2(4), 77-81. https://doi.org/10.64804/z4c41213

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