Pulsed electromagnetic methods for defect detection and characterisation

The magnetic flux leakage (MFL) method has very good defect detection and location capabilities, but defect sizing capabilities, especially for sub-surface defect characterisation, are limited. The pulsed magnetic flux leakage (PMFL) technique has recently been introduced and shown to have great potential for automated defect sizing for surface-breaking defects using time-frequency signal processing techniques, but sizing of sub-surface defects has proved problematic. In this paper, pulsed magnetic reluctance (PMR), a new electromagnetic (EM) non-destructive evaluation (NDE) technique, is introduced and incorporated into a dual PMFL/PMR probe for the characterisation of surface and sub-surface defects in ferromagnetic materials. Experimental results from a comparison study of the two techniques using variety of defects analysed using time-frequency analysis show that the techniques offer complementary information, with PMFL providing defect location data and data for the characterisation of surface defects and PMR offering sub-surface defect characterisation capabilities. The work concludes that integration of these inspection techniques in the new pulsed EM probe can provide enhanced defect characterisation capabilities for flux leakage-based inspection systems using relatively simple time-frequency signal processing techniques.