Pulsed Eddy Current Non-destructive Testing and Evaluation:A Review

Pulsed eddy current （PEC） non-destructive test- ing and evaluation （NDT＆E） has been around for some time and it is still attracting extensive attention from researchers around the globe, which can be witnessed through the reports reviewed in this paper. Thanks to its richness of spectral components, various applications of this technique have been proposed and reported in the lit- erature covering both structural integrity inspection and material characterization in various industrial sectors. To support its development and for better understanding of the phenomena around the transient induced eddy currents, attempts for its modelling both analytically and numeri- cally have been made by researchers around the world. This review is an attempt to capture the state-of-the-art development and applications of PEC, especially in the last 15 years and it is not intended to be exhaustive. Future challenges and opportunities for PEC NDT＆E are also presented.

Non-destructive Evaluation of Composite Pressure Vessel by Using FBG Sensors

In recent years, advanced composite structures are used extensively in many industries such as aerospace, aircraft, automobile, pipeline and civil engineering. Reliability and safety are crucial requirements posed by them to the advanced composite structures be- cause of their harsh working conditions. Therefore, as a very important measure, structural health monitoring （SHM） in-service is deft- nitely demanded for ensuring their safe working in-situ. In this paper, fiber Bragg grating （FBG） sensors are surface-mounted on the hoop and in the axial directions of a FRP pressure vessel to monitor the strain status during its pressurization. The experimental results show that the FBG sensors could be used to monitor the strain development and determine the ultimate failure strain of the composite pressure vessel.

Optical generation,detection and non-destructive testing applications of terahertz waves

Optoelectronic terahertz generation and detection play a key role in the applications of non-destructive testing,which involves different areas such as physics,biological,material science,imaging,explosions detection,astronomy applications,semiconductor technology and superconductiong electronics. In this article,we present a reviewof the principle and performance of typical terahertz sources,detectors and non-destructive testing applications. On this basis,the newdevelopment and trends of terahertz radiation detectors are also discussed.

Non-destructive experimental testing and modeling of electrical impedance behavior of untreated and treated ultra-soft clayey soils

The characterization of ultra-soft clayey soil exhibits extreme challenges due to low shear strength of such material.Hence,inspecting the non-destructive electrical impedance behavior of untreated and treated ultra-soft clayey soils gains more attention.Both shear strength and electrical impedance were measured experimentally for both untreated and treated ultra-soft clayey soils.The shear strength of untreated ultra-soft clayey soil reached 0.17 kPa for 10% bentonite content,while the shear strengths increased to 0.27 kPa and 6.7 kPa for 10% bentonite content treated with 2% lime and 10% polymer,respectively.The electrical impedance of the ultra-soft clayey soil has shown a significant decrease from 1.6 kΩ to 0.607 kΩ when the bentonite content increased from 2% to 10% at a frequency of 300 kHz.The10%lime and 10% polymer treatments have decreased the electrical impedances of ultra-soft clayey soil with 10%bentonite from 0.607 kΩ to 0.12 kΩ and 0.176 kΩ,respectively,at a frequency of 300 kHz.A new mathematical model has been accordingly proposed to model the non-destructive electrical impedancefrequency relationship for both untreated and treated ultra-soft clayey soils.The new model has shown a good agreement with experimental data with coefficient of determination（R;）up to 0.99 and root mean square error（RMSE） of 0.007 kΩ.

Non-destructive Evaluation of Absolute Stress in Steel Members Using Shear-Wave Spectroscopy

Non-destructive measurement of absolute stress in steel members can provide useful information to optimize the design of steel structures and allow the safety of existing structures to be evaluated.This paper investigates the non-destructive capability of ultrasonic shear-wave spectroscopy in absolute stress evaluation of steel members.The effect of steel-member stress on the shear-wave amplitude spectrum is investigated,and a method of absolute stress measurement is proposed.Specifically,the process for evaluating absolute stress using shear-wave spectroscopy is summarized.Two steel members are employed to investigate the relationship between the stress and the frequency in shear-wave echo amplitude spectrum.The H-beam loaded by the universal testing machine is evaluated by the proposed method and the traditional strain gauge method for verification.The results show that the proposed method is effective and accurate for determining absolute stress in steel members.

Non-Destructive Imaging of Water Permeation through Cementitious Materials Using MRI

In this study, water permeation through cementitious materials was observed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The influence of cement type on the magnetic resonance signal was studied subsequent to determining the parameters required for imaging. Consequently, adequate imaging of water permeating through hardened cement paste (HCP) made with white Portland cement was achieved, while water permeation through ordinary Portland cement-based HCP yielded poor signal. HCPs maintained at various levels of relative humidity (RH) were observed, and the signal was detected only from those maintained at an RH of higher than 85%. The water permeation depths in HCP were observed by using MRI, and the measured depths were compared to those measured via a spraying water detector on the split surface of the specimens. As a result, good agreement was confirmed between the two methods. Additionally, MRI was applied to concrete specimens;although it was found that water was not detected when a lightweight aggregate was used, water permeation through concrete with limestone aggregate was detectable via MRI. MRI will help in understanding how water permeation causes and accelerates concrete deteriorations such as rebar corrosion and freezing and thawing.

Rapid and Non-destructive Prediction of Protein Content in Peanut Varieties Using Near-infrared Hyperspectral Imaging Method

This study was undertaken to investigate the feasibility of near-infrared(NIR) hyperspectral imaging(1 000–2 500 nm) for non-destructive and quantitative prediction of protein content in peanut kernels. Partial least squares regression(PLSR) calibration model was established between the spectral data extracted from the hyperspectral images and the reference measured protein content values, with the coefficient of determination of prediction(R_P^2) of 0.885 and root mean square error of prediction(RMSEP) of 0.465%.Regression coefficients(RC) from PLSR analysis were used to identify the most essential wavelengths that had the greatest influence on changes in the protein content. Eight optimal wavelengths were selected by RC and its corresponding simplified RC-PLSR prediction model was also obtained, showing better performance with a higher R_P^2 of 0.870 and a lower RMSEP of 0.494%. The results indicate that hyperspectral imaging with PLSR analysis can be used as a rapid and non-destructive method for predicting protein content in peanut.

NON-DESTRUCTIVE PAVEMENT LAYER THICKNESS MEASUREMENT USING EMPIRICAL MODE DECOMPOSITION WITH GPR

Ground Penetrating Radar(GPR) is an effective Non-Destructive Testing(NDT) technique for highway pavement surveys, which is able to acquire continuous pavement data compared with traditional core drilling method. In this study, we proposed an accurate and efficient method to estimate the thickness of each pavement layer using an air-coupled GPR system. For this work, the main difficulties are estimating each pavement layer's time delay and dielectric constant. We first give the basic signal model for pavement evaluation, and then present an Intrinsic Mode Functions(IMFs) product detector to determine each pavement layer's time delay. This method is based on Empirical Mode Decomposition(EMD), which is an adaptive signal decomposition procedure and proved to be suitable for suppressing noises in GPR signal. The dielectric constant was determined by metal reflection measurement. The laboratory and highway experiments illustrate that the proposed thickness estimation method yields reasonable result, thus meets the requirements of practical highway pavement survey with massive GPR data.

The non-destructive threshold of the graphite surface by STM in the ultra-fast pulse mode

In this paper single ultra-fast voltage pulses are introduced to the Pt/Ir tip of a scanning tunnelling microscope （STM）, and the non-destructive threshold of the graphite surface is studied systematically in a wide range of pulse durations （from 104 to 8 ns）. Considering the waveform distortion of the pulses at the tunnelling region, this paper gives the corrected threshold curve of pulse amplitude depending on pulse duration. A new explanation of threshold power has been suggested and fits the experimental results well.

Non-destructive study of fruits using grating-based X-ray imaging

Grating-based X-ray imaging can make use of conventional tube sources to provide absorption, refraction and scattering contrast images from a single set of projection images efficiently. In this paper, a fresh cherry tomato and a dried umeboshi are imaged by using X-ray Talbot–Lau interferometer. The seed distribution in the scattering image of the cherry tomato, and the wrinkles of epicarp in the refraction image of the umeboshi, are shown distinctly. The refraction and scattering images provide more information on subtle features than the absorption image. Also, the contrast-to-noise ratio values show distinguishing capacity of the three kinds of imaging techniques. The results confirm that grating-based X-ray imaging is of great potential in non-destructive fruit testing.

Compressed sensing and Otsu's method based binary CT image reconstruction technique in non-destructive detection

This paper tries to address the problem of binary CT image reconstruction in non-destructive detection with an algorithm based on compressed sensing(CS) and Otsu's method, which could reconstruct binary CT image of test object from incomplete detection data. According to binary CT image characteristics, we employ Splitbregman method based on L1/2regularization to solve piecewise constant region reconstruction. To improve the reconstructed image quality from incomplete detection data, we utilize a priori knowledge and Otsu's method as the optimization constraint. In our study, we make numerical simulation to investigate our proposed method,and compare reconstructed results from different reconstruction methods. Finally, the experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method could effectively reduce noise and suppress artifacts, and reconstruct high-quality binary image from incomplete detection data.

Determination of Bonding Failures in Transparent Materials with Non-Destructive Methods—Evaluation of Climatically Stressed Glued and Laminated Glass Compounds

As part of an international research project—funded by the European Union—capillary glasses for facades are being developed exploiting storage energy by means of fluids flowing through the capillaries. To meet highest visual demands, acrylate adhesives and EVA films are tested as possible bonding materials for the glass setup. Especially non-destructive methods (visual analysis, analysis of birefringent properties and computed tomographic data) are applied to evaluate failure patterns as well as the long-term behavior considering climatic influences. The experimental investigations are presented after different loading periods, providing information of failure developments. In addition, detailed information and scientific findings on the application of computed tomographic analyses are presented.

New Trends in Non-Destructive Evaluation of Surface Hardened Layers and Coatings

This article should not be considered as a full review of current methods for non-destructive testing of surface layers. Rather, it is a subjective in this area. However, the article provides some review of the challenges posed by the current state of surface layers treatment techniques on the area of Non-Destructive materials evaluation: enhancement of the sensitivity to the type of defects, increasing resolution to submicron values, the requirement to diagnose the surface layers with depth resolution of properties, diagnosis of multilayer multicomponent surface layers and coatings, treated with concentrated energy.

Application Research of the Non-Destructive Testing Using Optical Fiber Sensor

In this paper, an optical fiber sensor is designed by using optical Faraday effect. It is composed of fiber collimator, polarizer, magneto-optical crystal and mirror. Based on the magnetic flux leakage (MFL) theory, The optical fiber sensor was placed between two permanent magnets with the N-pole. Therefore, the optical fiber sensing system was built to detect the defective ferromagnetic objects. Theoretical and experimental studies shown that the system can identify a little defects, such as irons’ blind hole (diameter φ =?3mm , depth t = 4mm?), irons’ grooves (length l= 30mm , width?ω = 10mm ), hole (φ?=?3mm ) and crackle etc. The system has the characteristics of small size, high sensitivity, fast signal response and high resolution. In terms of the defective oil and gas pipelines detection, The optical fiber sensing system is used in non-destructive testing, which will be valuable and meaningful.

Determination of Harvest Maturity for Mango (<i>Mangifera indica</i>L.) Fruit by Non-Destructive Criteria

Haden, Kent, Palmer, and Keitt mango varieties were studied to establish the relationship of harvest time to 1) seasonal accumulated day-degrees or heat units (˚C), 2) daily rainfall amount (mm), and 3) physical fruit development attributes in order to fix maturity standards for export and local markets. Randomized Complete Block Design with four replications was used. In each case of Haden, Kent, Palmer, and Keitt varieties, physical fruit development attributes established as standard harvest maturity values were: weight (640 g, 836 g, 837 g, and 1104 g, respectively), length (16.31 cm, 16.19 cm, 21.22 cm, and 19 cm, respectively), width (30.97 cm, 33.47 cm, 30.86 cm, and 35.91 cm, respectively), volume (598 cm3, 807 cm3, 772 cm3, and 959 cm3, respectively), density (1.147 g/cm3, 1.076 g/cm3, 1.084 g/cm3, and 1.189 g/cm3, respectively), and indentation (0.25 cm, 0.49 cm, and 0.50 cm, respectively). The intensity of grooves around the stylar-scar end of Palmer fruits was studied and used as maturity index. Index values of 0.075 mls, 0.150 mls, 0.425 mls, and 0.116 mls, respectively, for Haden, Kent, Palmer, and Keitt varieties were recorded as latex exuded at harvest since these values tallied with the other physical harvest maturity index values, and also with those of rain fall and temperature values. Temperature, rainfall, and physical characteristics are therefore important non-destructive criteria for fixing maturity index values for mango fruits.

Non-Destructive Testing of Rods Using a Potential Component of a Magnetic Field

An essentially new method for non-destructive testing of elastic electrically conductive rods using non-vortex electromagnetic induction is proved theoretically. An experimental technique for defining a location of a cross crack is offered.

Multi-Energy Gamma-Ray Attenuations for Non-Destructive Detection of Hazardous Materials

We present a non-destructive method (NDM) to identify minute quantities of high atomic number (Z) elements in containers such as passenger baggage, goods carrying transport trucks, and environmental samples. This method relies on the fact that photon attenuation varies with its energy and properties of the absorbing medium. Low-energy gamma-ray intensity loss is sensitive to the atomic number of the absorbing medium, while that of higher-energies vary with the density of the medium. To verify the usefulness of this feature for NDM, we carried out simultaneous measurements of intensities of multiple gamma rays of energies 81 to 1408 keV emitted by sources 133Ba (half-life = 10.55 y) and 152Eu (half-life = 13.52 y). By this arrangement, we could detect minute quantities of lead and copper in a bulk medium from energy dependent gamma-ray attenuations. It seems that this method will offer a reliable, low-cost, low-maintenance alternative to X-ray or accelerator-based techniques for the NDM of high-Z materials such as mercury, lead, uranium, and transuranic elements etc.

基于Self-Attention-BiLSTM网络的西瓜种苗叶片氮磷钾含量高光谱检测方法

元素含量无损检测技术可以为植物生长发育的环境精准调控提供关键实时数据。以西瓜苗为例,提出了一种基于图谱特征融合的氮磷钾含量深度学习检测方法。首先,使用高光谱仪拍摄西瓜苗叶片的高光谱图像,使用连续流动化学分析仪测定叶片的3种元素含量。然后,采用基线偏移校正(BOC)叠加高斯平滑滤波(GF)的光谱预处理方法和随机森林算法(RF)建立预测模型,基于竞争性自适应重加权采样(CARS)和连续投影算法(SPA)2种算法初步筛选出特征波长,再综合考虑波长数和建模精度设计了一种最优波长评价方法,将波长数进一步减少到3~4个。最后,提取使用U-Net网络分割的彩色图像颜色和纹理特征,和光谱反射率特征一起作为输入,基于自注意力机制-双向长短时记忆(Self-Attention-BiLSTM)网络构建了3种元素含量的预测模型。实验结果表明,氮磷钾含量预测的R2分别为0.961、0.954、0.958,RMSE分别为0.294%、0.262%、0.196%,实现了很好的建模效果。使用该模型对另2个品种西瓜进行测试,R2超过0.899、RMSE小于0.498%,表明该模型具有很好的泛化性。该高光谱建模方法使用少量波长光谱即实现了高精度检测,在精度和效率上达成了很好的平衡,为后续便携式高光谱检测装备开发奠定了理论基础。

基于PSO-ELM的变压器油纸绝缘状态无损评估方法

油浸式电力变压器作为电网的重要组成部分,其可靠运行至关重要。针对变压器长期运行后无法定量评估其绝缘状态的问题,文中开展了油纸绝缘模型的加速老化及受潮试验,探究了油纸绝缘老化及受潮程度对其回复电压曲线的影响规律,并提出采用粒子群优化-极限学习机(particle swarm optimization-extreme learning machine,PSO-ELM)算法的参数预测方法,实现了基于回复电压曲线特征参量的油纸绝缘老化与受潮状态量化评估。由油纸绝缘模型理化性能分析的对比结果可知,基于PSO-ELM方法的预测值精度远高于传统ELM方法,油纸绝缘内含水率及纸板聚合度预测的绝对误差范围分别小于±0.4%、±30。