A Study of Quantifying Thickness of Ferromagnetic Pipes Based on Remote Field Eddy Current Testing

Abstract

Remote Field Eddy Current Testing (RFECT) has broad applications in ferromagnetic pipe testing due to the same testing sensitivity to inner and outer wall defects. However, how to quantify wall thickness in the RFECT of pipes is still a big problem. According to researchers’ studies, a linear relationship exists between the wall thickness, permeability and conductivity of a pipe and the phase of the RFECT signal. Aiming to quantify wall thickness by using this linear function, it is necessary to further study the effects of pipe permeability and conductivity on the phase of the RFECT signal. When the product value of the permeability and the conductivity of a pipe remains constant, the univariate analysis and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) are employed to analyze the variations among the phase of the RFECT signal caused by different couples of permeability and conductivity. These variations are calibrated by using a nonlinear fitting method. Moreover, Multi-Frequency Eddy Current Testing (MFECT) is applied to inverse the permeability and conductivity of a pipe to compensate for the quantification analysis of wall thickness. The methods proposed in this paper are validated by analyzing the simulation signals and can improve the practicality of RFECT of ferromagnetic pipes.