Quantitative Research on Cracks in Pipe Based on Magnetic Field Response Method of Eddy Current Testing

Abstract

The quantitative evaluation of defects in eddy current testing is of great significance. Impedance analysis, as a traditional method, is adopted to determine defects in the conductor, however, it is not able to depict the shape, size and location of defects quantitatively. In order to obtain more obvious characteristic quantities and improve the ability of eddy current testing to detect defects, the study of cracks in metal pipes is carried out by utilizing the analysis method of three-dimensional magnetic field in present paper. The magnetic field components in the space near the crack are calculated numerically by using finite element analysis. The simulation results confirm that the monitoring of the crack change can be achieved by measuring the magnetic field at the arrangement positions. Besides, the quantitative relationships between the shape, length of the crack and the magnetic field components around the metal pipe are obtained. The results show that the axial and radial magnetic induction intensities are affected more significantly by the cross-section area of the crack. Bz demonstrates obvious advantages in analyzing quantitatively crack circumference length. Therefore, the response signal in the three-dimensional direction of the magnetic field gets to intuitively reflect the change of the defect parameter, which proves the effectiveness and practicability of this method.