Nondestructive Inspection Using Rotating Magnetic Field Eddy-Current Probe

Author

Xin, Junjun ; Lei, Naiguang ; Udpa, Lalita ; Udpa, Satish S.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI, USA

Volume

47

Issue

5

fYear

2011

fDate

5/1/2011 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1070

Lastpage

1073

Abstract

Rotating magnetic field eddy-current (RoFEC) probe for nondestructive evaluation of steam generator tubes in a nuclear power plant offers an alternate method that has compact configuration and higher speed compared to traditional bobbin coil, rotating probe coils, and array probes. This paper investigates the feasibility of the proposed RoFEC eddy-current probe which is composed of three windings excited by three-phase ac current and does not require mechanical rotation of probe. Results of finite-element modeling using reduced magnetic vector potential (RMVP) formulation are presented for modeling the inspection of ferromagnetic and nonferromagnetic tubes. Design parameters of the excitation coils and GMR pick-up sensor are optimized by means of a parametric study.

Keywords

boilers; coils; eddy current testing; eddy currents; ferromagnetic materials; finite element analysis; giant magnetoresistance; nuclear power; sensor arrays; windings; GMR pick-up sensor arrays; array probes; bobbin coil; design parameters; excitation coils; ferromagnetic tubes; finite-element modeling; giant magnetoresistance sensor; mechanical rotation; nondestructive testing; nonferromagnetic tubes; nuclear power plant; reduced magnetic vector potential; rotating magnetic field eddy-current probe; rotating probe coils; steam generator tubes; three-phase ac current; windings; Coils; Electron tubes; Inspection; Magnetic separation; Permeability; Probes; Saturation magnetization; Eddy-current testing; nondestructive testing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMAG.2011.2108996

Filename

5754790