Excitation and Detection of Shear Horizontal Waves with Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducers for Nondestructive Testing of Plates

The fundamental shear horizontal（SH0） wave has several unique features that are attractive for long-range nondestructive testing（NDT）. By a careful design of the geometric configuration, electromagnetic acoustic transducers（EMATs） have the capability to generate a wide range of guided wave modes, such as Lamb waves and shear-horizontal（SH） waves in plates. However, the performance of EMATs is influenced by their parameters. To evaluate the performance of periodic permanent magnet（PPM） EMATs, a distributed-line-source model is developed to calculate the angular acoustic field cross-section in the far-field. Numerical analysis is conducted to investigate the performance of such EMATs with different geometric parameters, such as period and number of magnet arrays, and inner and outer coil widths. Such parameters have a great influence on the directivity of the generated SH0 waves that arises mainly in the amplitude and width of both main and side lobes. According to the numerical analysis, these parameters are optimized to obtain better directivity. Optimized PPM EMATs are designed and used for NDT of strip plates. Experimental results show that the lateral boundary of the strip plate has no perceivable influence on SHO-wave propagation, thus validating their used in NDT. The proposed model predicts the radiation pattern ofPPM EMATs, and can be used for their parameter optimization.

Lamb wave signal selective enhancement by an improved design of meander-coil electromagnetic acoustic transducer

In this paper, we investigate a method of selectively enhancing the single mode signal of a Lamb wave by using a meander-coil electromagnetic acoustic transducer （EMAT） with a new magnetic configuration. We use the Lamb antisym- metric （A0） mode and symmetric （SO） mode as an example for analysis. The analytical expression of the magnitude of the spatial Fourier transform of the Lorentz force generated by different meander coils is used to determine the optimal driving frequency for single mode generation. The numerical calculation is used to characterize the new magnetic configuration and the conventional EMAT magnet. Experimental examinations of each meander coil in combination with the conventional and new magnetic configuration show that the Lamb wave signal can be selectively enhanced by choosing the appropriate driving frequency and coil parameters through using the improved meander-coil EMAT.

Circuit-field coupled finite element analysis method for an electromagnetic acoustic transducer under pulsed voltage excitation

This paper presents an analytical method for electromagnetic acoustic transducers （EMATs） under voltage excitation and considers the non-uniform distribution of the biased magnetic field. A complete model of EMATs including the non-uniform biased magnetic field, a pulsed eddy current field and the acoustic field is built up. The pulsed voltage excitation is transformed to the frequency domain by fast Fourier transformation （FFT）. In terms of the time harmonic field equations of the EMAT system, the impedances of the coils under different frequencies are calculated according to the circuit-field coupling method and Poynting＇s theorem. Then the currents under different frequencies are calculated according to Ohm＇s law and the pulsed current excitation is obtained by inverse fast Fourier transformation （IFFT）. Lastly, the sequentially coupled finite element method （FEM） is used to calculate the Lorentz force in the EMATs under the current excitation. An actual EMAT with a two-layer two-bundle printed circuit board （PCB） coil, a rectangular permanent magnet and an aluminium specimen is analysed. The coil impedances and the pulsed current are calculated and compared with the experimental results. Their agreement verified the validity of the proposed method. Furthermore, the influences of lift-off distances and the non-uniform static magnetic field on the Lorentz force under pulsed voltage excitation are studied.

Selective generation of ultrasonic Lamb waves by electromagnetic acoustic transducers

In this paper, we describe a modal expansion approach for the analysis of the selective generation of ultrasonic Lamb waves by electromagnetic acoustic transducers （EMATs）. With the modal expansion approach for waveguide excitation, an analytical expression of the Lamb wave＇s mode expansion coefficient is deduced, which is related to the driving frequency and the geometrical parameters of the EMAT＇s meander coil, and lays a theoretical foundation for exactly analyzing the selective generation of Larnb waves with EMATs. The influences of the driving frequency on the mode expansion coefficient of ultrasonic Lamb waves are analyzed when the EMAT＇s geometrical parameters are given. The numerical simulations and experimental examinations show that the ultrasonic Lamb wave modes can be effectively regulated （strengthened or restrained） by choosing an appropriate driving frequency of EMAT, with the geometrical parameters given. This result provides a theoretical and experimental basis for selectively generating a single and pure Lamb wave mode with EMATs.

Micro-Sized Pinhole Inspection with Segmented Time Reversal and High-Order Modes Cluster Lamb Waves Based on EMATs

Pinhole corrosion is difficult to discover through conventional ultrasonic guided waves inspection,particularly for micro-sized pinholes less than 1 mm in diameter.This study proposes a new micro-sized pinhole inspection method based on segmented time reversal(STR)and high-order modes cluster(HOMC)Lamb waves.First,the principle of defect echo enhancement using STR is introduced.Conventional and STR inspection experiments were conducted on aluminum plates with a thickness of 3 mm and defects with different diameters and depths.The parameters of the segment window are discussed in detail.The results indicate that the proposed method had an amplitude four times larger than of conventional ultrasonic guided waves inspection method for pinhole defect detection and could detect micro-sized pinhole defects as small as 0.5 mm in diameter and 0.5 mm in depth.Moreover,the segment window location and width(5-10 times width of the conventional excitation signal)did not affect the detection sensitivity.The combination of low-power and STR is more conducive to detection in different environments,indicating the robustness of the proposed method.Compared with conventional ultrasonic guided wave inspection methods,the proposed method can detect much smaller defect echoes usually obscured by noise that are difficult to detect with a lower excitation power and thus this study would be a good reference for pinhole defect detection.

Single SH guided wave mode generation method for PPM EMATs

Using periodic permanent magnet(PPM)electromagnetic acoustic transducers(EMATs),different shear horizontal(SH)guided wave modes can form simultaneously in some situations,which can interfere with the inspection.The main cause of this phenomenon(typically named multiple modes)is related to the frequency bandwidth of excitation signals and the transducer spatial bandwidth.Simply narrowing the frequency bandwidth cannot effectively limit the number of different SH modes.Previous researches showed that unnecessary SH wave modes can be eliminated by using dual EMATs.However,in practical applications,it is more convenient to change the excitation frequency than to use dual EMATs.In this paper,the stress boundary conditions of the PPM-EMAT are analyzed,the analytical expression of SH guided wave is established,and the magnitude of SH guided wave mode under continuous tone and tone-burst input is obtained.A method to generate a single SH mode by re-selecting an operating point is proposed.Furthermore,the influence of the frequency bandwidth of the tone-burst signal is analyzed.Finally,a single SH mode excitation is achieved with tone-burst input.