No abstract

The change in mutual impedance ΔZ12 due to eddy-current induction is considered for an arbitrary pair of air-cored coils located above a conducting plate. A general expression is derived for ΔZ12 and applied to the specific case of cylindrical coils with rectangular cross-section. A series of closed-form expressions for ΔZ12 is presented for the geometries that cover all of the possible coil configurations for which the orientation of the individual coils is either normal or tangential to the plate. Expressions are also obtained for ΔZ12 in the dipole limit and the results are compared with earlier work for dipole loops. The validity of the theory is tested against experimental measurements for representative high-symmetry coil systems above an aluminium-alloy plate. The theoretical calculations and experimental results are in excellent agreement over the experimental frequency range 100 Hz–50 kHz. The significance of the results for eddy-current non-destructive inspection using driver–pickup coils is discussed.

Non-destructive evaluation of compressed cracks is a major challenge. A quantitative study of the effect of crack-tip closure on the pulse-echo ultrasonic sizing of delaminations in fibre-reinforced polymer-matrix composites (FRP) is presented. In particular, this study focuses on the interaction of ultrasound with a closed crack or kissing disbond, and their effect on the ultrasonic inspectability of FRP laminates consisting of carbon and glass plies. The compression of laminar cracks in these two different laminate types is clearly detectable via both pulse-echo and through-transmission ultrasonic measurements, but the reflected ultrasonic pulses in the two material types exhibit markedly different behaviour. The glass-fibre laminates show a drop in the reflected signal for crack openings up to approximately half the crack growth load, whereas the corresponding carbon-fibre laminates show the expected increase in the reflected signal as the crack opens. The origins of the observed effect of crack closure on the reflection and transmission of ultrasound are analysed in detail to ascertain possible mechanisms responsible for these effects.