Magnetic flux leakage (MFL) testing has been widely used as a non-destructive testing method for various materials. However, it is difficult to separate the influences of the defect geometrical parameters such as depth, width, and length on the received leakage signals. In this paper, a "near-field" MFL method is proposed to quantify defect widths. Both the finite element modelling (FEM) and experimental studies are carried out to investigate the performance of the proposed method. It is found that that the distance between two peaks of the "near-field" MFL is strongly related to the defect width and lift-off value, whereas it is slightly affected by the defect depth. Based on this phenomenon, a defect width assessment relying on the "near-field" MFL method is proposed. Results show that relative judging errors are less than 5%. In addition, the analytical expression of the "near-field" MFL is also developed.
