During recent years, rapid progress has been made in modeling the interaction of nonuniform eddy-current (EC) probe fields with surface flaws and verifying these models by comparisons with experiment. Following the development of the basic analysis for nonuniform probe fields [1], the first comparison of measured eddy current signals with predictions of the theory was made in 1983 [2]. The following year brought development of a full inversion procedure for rectangular flaws [3], which was successfully demonstrated using flaw signals measured for a series of rectangular electrical-discharge machined (EDM) notches in aluminum [4]. This year, in a companion paper [5], the model for interaction of nonuniform probe fields with flaws has been extended to semi-elliptical flaws. The present paper describes an extensive series of measurements of flaw signals for both fatigue cracks and semi-elliptical EDM notches in aluminum and titanium alloys. The measured flaw signals are compared with theoretical predictions and are also used to test the inversion procedure based on the theory [5].
EXPERIMENTThe objective of this study was to make a serjes of carefully controlled measurements of eddy current flaw signals for well characterized, semielliptical flaws in aluminum and titanium alloys to compare with flaw signals calculated using theoretical models described in a companion paper [5]. Both real fatigue cracks and EDM simulations were studied. Most measurements emphasized air-core probes, since the magnetic field distributions for these probes could be calculated using the theory of Dodd and Deeds [6]. One * Contribution of the National Bureau of Standards, not subject to copyright.