Excitation with phase shifted fields-enhancing evaluation of deep cracks in eddy-current testing

This study enhances the applicability of eddy current testing to the evaluation of deep surface-breaking cracks in the front face of thick structures, while keeping the advantages of higher frequency inspection. The key idea is to suppress eddy currents on the surface of a test-piece, and thus realize the deeper penetration of eddy currents. Based upon this idea, a mutual induction eddy current testing probe, consisting of four coaxial rectangular tangential exciter coils and a pancake pick-up coil, has been designed. The exciters are driven by AC currents with different phases and amplitudes, which contrive to emulate the desired behavior. Numerical simulations and consecutive experimental verifications are presented in the paper. It is revealed that when the new probe is used for inspections under a frequency of 10 kHz there is a 20% difference between signals due to an electro-discharge machined (EDM) notch of 15 mm depth and those due to one of 20 mm depth. On the other hand, a conventional probe driven with the same frequency gives only 1% difference between the signals of the two EDM notches.