Nova Técnica de END baseada em células bacterianas para detecção de micro e nano defeitos superficiais

Recent work showed that bacteria cell films (CB) can be used as a new feasible non destructive testing technique (NDT), capable to detect and characterize micro and nano surface defects. Bacterial cells can also be used to characterize the surface texture and topography. This new NDT technique aims to exploit cells intentionality and life attributes, namely: their very small dimension, high penetration capacity, motility, adherence, fluorescence, sensitivity to electric and magnetic fields, death and reproducibility. This paper describes the methodology adopted to apply this technique, and the experimental validation in different materials with distinct defect morphologies. Results show that bacterial cells can effectively detect existing defects in ISO 3452-3 type 1 reference blocks with 0.5 μm thick defects, crack type defects in laser welds in titanium, microindentations in INCONEL and nano indentations in gold. Thus, it was proven the feasibility of this technique, as well as its potential to detect defects in components for industrial applications.