Method of and system for detecting and/or monitoring the growth of defects

Abstract

A method of detecting and/or monitoring the forming and/or the growth of defects, in particular cracks or plastic deformation, and/or suspected defects in ferromagnetic structures, such as civil engineering and marine structures, comprises reading, at a first point in time, values of magnetic flux leakage (MFL) from a plurality of magnetometers placed over or near a defect or a suspected defect and storing the values of magnetic flux leakage (MFL). The method further comprises reading values of magnetic flux leakage (MFL) from a plurality of magnetometers at a further point in time, processing the values of the further reading with the values from the earlier reading, and determining the location of a singular point of the defect from the processed further reading.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.