Pulsed eddy current testing is widely used because of its richness in spectral components. However, the degrading sensitivity as lift-off increases poses a challenge to its application in thick insulation… Click to show full abstract
Pulsed eddy current testing is widely used because of its richness in spectral components. However, the degrading sensitivity as lift-off increases poses a challenge to its application in thick insulation or buried structures and weld areas. In the transmitter-receiver probe, self-impedance (offset) of receiver coil dominates the output signal, reducing the signal-to-noise ratio, especially at high lift-off. This limits the subsequent amplification of the output signal by the signal conditioning circuit. In practice, bridge-based measurements are used to mitigate this challenge but result in small linear range input-output characteristics. Electromagnetic interference and stray capacitance effects also cause measurement errors. This paper investigates a modified Maxwell’s inductance bridge based on operational amplifier configuration for high lift-off testing. The receiver coil self-impedance is removed to improve signal-to-noise ratio and to make output signal proportional to impedance change only. Experiments are performed to evaluate the performance of the circuit in crack detection. The results show improved signal-to-noise ratio with maximum linearity deviation of 0.30%, and a higher crack detection sensitivity at 30mm high lift-off, in comparison to the conventional bridge circuit with maximum linearity deviation of 0.53%.
               
Click one of the above tabs to view related content.