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Purpose

This paper aims to enhance the detection accuracy of fine linear fatigue cracks in aero-engine metallic components by developing an image enhancement and segmentation technique.

Design/methodology/approach

A dataset of fine linear fatigue cracks was constructed using image enhancement techniques. A U-shaped semantic segmentation network based on a Fully Convolutional Network (FCN) and pre-trained VGG-16 model was developed. Dice Loss, Focal Loss, and CBAM were employed to enhance crack segmentation precision.

Findings

The proposed method achieved a segmentation accuracy of 92.30% and successfully measured 95.91% of cracks with over 90% accuracy, demonstrating the effectiveness of the approach in improving crack detection and measurement.

Research limitations/implications

The study focuses on small fatigue cracks, and future research may explore broader applications or the detection of other flaw types to enhance generalizability.

Originality/value

This work integrates advanced image processing techniques, attention mechanisms, and loss functions to improve fine crack segmentation, providing a novel method for accurately detecting small cracks in critical aerospace components.

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