Fatigue damage detection and location of metal materials by electrical impedance tomography

•The experimental results show that the DC double-arm bridge four-terminal method is feasible to measure the change of resistance after metal fatigue.•Micro-resistance shows the highest correlation with loading force and loading cycle of metal materials.•The change of the micro-resistance can be used to detect the local damage of the metal.•Taking the rate of change of resistance as the imaging target, EIT technology can effectively achieve detect the position of metal damage.