Modeling by finite element method of detecting rail squat by pulsed thermography

We present in this work a numerical model based on the finite element method to detect squat defect which are dangerously frequent in the rail network. We have used the pulsed infrared technique thermography for modeling the detection of these defects. We also developed a model for predicting the depth of these defects, which is a crucial parameter in the characterization of the railway state. The obtained results as a thermal images showed that the model can be applied to the early detection of this defects.