Development of EMAT and piezoelectric transducers for high temperature ultrasonic thickness measurements

Improving reliability of components operating at high temperature, such as pipelines, boilers and reactors, within a range of industries is of importance in the asset management process. This thesis concerns the development and testing of ultrasound transducers for use at elevated temperatures, up to 500 _C, without the use of active cooling. Ultrasound thickness measurement applications employing these high temperature transducers includes both portable-type non-destructive testing (NDT) inspections and permanent condition monitoring, primarily towards detection of corrosion and erosion. The development and optimisation of an electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) design which generates and detects bulk radially polarised shear waves utilising a high temperature permanent magnet and a ceramic encapsulated spiral coil is discussed. This design was optimised for use on magnetite coated mild steel samples; it was shown that the magnetostriction mechanism tends to dominate, depending upon sample properties, producing large signals even at elevated temperatures. High temperature laboratory trials (up to 500 oC) demonstrated the non-linear change in signal amplitude with increasing temperature on magnetite coated mild steel samples, attributed to the complex non-linear relationship between magnetostrictive strains and applied external magnetic field. The EMAT provided good signal amplitude, even at relatively large sample-EMAT lift-off (up to 8.0 mm), demonstrating the applicability of this EMAT for high temperature scanning inspections. A longterm industrial field trial on a high temperature pipeline (≈ 350 oC) in a refinery exhibited the suitability of this design for high temperature continuous monitoring applications. A piezoelectric transducer with a novel compression-type design was optimised for application at high temperature, with the use of a waveguide, high temperature piezoelectric element and high temperature backing material; the optimisation of these components is discussed. This transducer design incorporates compression applied via a central bolt, to achieve acoustic coupling between the components, avoiding the use of adhesive layers, to generate bulk longitudinal waves. With the application of a bismuth titanate piezoelectric element, the transducer was able to generate signals on stainless steel whilst withstanding high temperatures (up to 500 oC) continuously without cooling

Investigation of the factors influencing magnetic flux leakage and magnetic Barkhausen noise

Magnetic Nondestructive methods, including Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) and Magnetic Barkhausen Noise (MBN), are widely used to evaluate the structural integrity, mechanical properties, and microstructures of ferromagnetic materials. The MFL method is commonly applied to nondestructively evaluate the damage in ferromagnetic materials due to its reliability, high efficiency, and cost-saving. The MBN method is applicable in nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of mechanical and material properties due to the high sensitivity of Barkhausen jumps to residual (or applied) stress and microstructure of ferromagnetic material. The recognized research and successful applications helped these methods to be feasible NDE tools. However, there are still several important factors that may have noticeable influences on the experimental results of these NDE methods and usually are ignored in applications. In this thesis, the effects of the factors of stress and temperature on the MFL method, as well as the influences of temperature and microstructure on the MBN method are analysed via analytical and numerical modelling. A new finite element model for evaluating the effect of stress on the MFL amplitude is proposed and validated in defective steel under various stresses. Moreover, the new models describing the direct effect of temperature and the combined effects of temperature and thermal stress on the MFL signals are presented. The direct and combined effects are verified in an environmental temperature range from -40℃ to 60℃ by experimental results of a single lamination steel and multilayer structure, respectively. A set of newly derived equations modelling the effect of temperature on the MBN signals are given. Both the direct effect of temperature and the combined effects of temperature and thermal stress are considered in these equations, which are further simplified to linear functions consistent with the measured results in an environmental temperature range from -40℃ to 40℃. Furthermore, the microstructure factors, including the microstructure induced anisotropy in non-oriented silicon steel and the metallographic phases changing with carbon content in steel, are theoretically and experimentally investigated, respectively. For the factor of anisotropy, a new model II describing the dependency of Barkhausen emission on the angle between measurement and rolling directions is proposed. It allows the deduction of a trigonometric function to evaluate the effect of directional anisotropy. The agreement of simulated and measured results of MBN signals indicates the feasibility of the presented model. In the investigation of the influence of carbon content in steel on MBN signals, an optimisation method for MBN pick-up coil is proposed, and a multifunctional measurement system is presented. The correlations of the MBN signals and hysteresis loops related to the carbon content in steel are experimentally observed. The method for the quantitative evaluation of the carbon content using MBN signals and hysteresis loops are discusse

Novel NDE techniques in the power generation industry

The thesis presented here comprises the work undertaken for research into novel NDE techniques in the power generation industry. This has been undertaken as part of the Engineering Doctorate Scheme run by the Research Centre for Non-Destructive Evaluation (RCNDE), which aims to bridge the technological gap between university research and industrial application. In this case, the scheme consisted of two projects completed in conjunction with RWE npower looking at current NDE problems in steam turbine and steam-raising plant. The first project was concerned with detecting microstructural transformation in steam turbine blades, which can act as a precursor to failure by environmentally assisted cracking. This project, and indeed, this entire thesis is principally based on electromagnetic testing methods. An eddy current technique for mapping the microstructural phases was produced and validated as far as was achievable; this offered a significant time-saving advantage over the previous method, by reducing inspection time from 5 man days to just 1.5. The technique has novelty in producing a 2-dimensional map of the blade surface which highlights areas where microstructural phases differ. The second project focuses on the detection of microstructural damage associated with material creep life expiry. This forms a review of the current state of technology and highlights potentially useful paths for future research in both established and emerging NDE technologies, including Magnetic Barkhausen Noise testing and laser-generated ultrasound. Both projects have provided tangible benefit to the sponsoring company and have pushed forward research in a number of technological applications

Novel NDE techniques in the power generation industry

The thesis presented here comprises the work undertaken for research into novel NDE techniques in the power generation industry. This has been undertaken as part of the Engineering Doctorate Scheme run by the Research Centre for Non-Destructive Evaluation (RCNDE), which aims to bridge the technological gap between university research and industrial application. In this case, the scheme consisted of two projects completed in conjunction with RWE npower looking at current NDE problems in steam turbine and steam-raising plant. The first project was concerned with detecting microstructural transformation in steam turbine blades, which can act as a precursor to failure by environmentally assisted cracking. This project, and indeed, this entire thesis is principally based on electromagnetic testing methods. An eddy current technique for mapping the microstructural phases was produced and validated as far as was achievable; this offered a significant time-saving advantage over the previous method, by reducing inspection time from 5 man days to just 1.5. The technique has novelty in producing a 2-dimensional map of the blade surface which highlights areas where microstructural phases differ. The second project focuses on the detection of microstructural damage associated with material creep life expiry. This forms a review of the current state of technology and highlights potentially useful paths for future research in both established and emerging NDE technologies, including Magnetic Barkhausen Noise testing and laser-generated ultrasound. Both projects have provided tangible benefit to the sponsoring company and have pushed forward research in a number of technological applications

ΔE-Effect Magnetic Field Sensors

Many conceivable biomedical and diagnostic applications require the detection of small-amplitude and low-frequency magnetic fields. Against this background, a magnetometer concept is investigated in this work based on the magnetoelastic ΔE effect. The ΔE effect causes the resonance frequency of a magnetoelastic resonator to detune in the presence of a magnetic field, which can be read-out electrically with an additional piezoelectric phase. Various microelectromechanical resonators are experimentally analyzed in terms of the ΔE effect and signal-and-noise response. This response is highly complex because of the anisotropic and nonlinear coupled magnetic, mechanical, and electrical properties. Models are developed and extended where necessary to gain insights into the potentials and limits accompanying sensor design and operating parameters. Beyond the material and geometry parameters, we analyze the effect of different resonance modes, spatial property variations, and operating frequencies on sensitivity. Although a large ΔE effect is confirmed in the shear modulus, the sensitivity of classical cantilever resonators does not benefit from this effect. An approach utilizing surface acoustic shear-waves provides a solution and can detect small signals over a large bandwidth. Comprehensive analyses of the quality factor and piezoelectric material parameters indicate methods to increase sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio significantly. First exchange-biased ΔE-effect sensors pave the way for compact setups and arrays with a large number of sensor elements. With an extended signal-and-noise model, specific requirements are identified that could improve the signal-to-noise ratio. The insights gained lead to a new concept that can circumvent previous limitations. With the results and models, important contributions are made to the understanding and development of ΔE-effect sensors with prospects for improvements in the future

Electromagnetic measurements of steel phase transformations

This thesis describes the development of electromagnetic sensors to measure the phase transformation in steel as it cools from the hot austenite phase to colder ferritic based phases. The work initially involved investigating a variety of sensing configurations including ac excited coils, C-core arrangements and the adaptation of commercial eddy current proximity sensors. Finally, two prototype designs were built and tested on a hot strip mill. The first of these, the T-meter was based on a C-shaped permanent magnet with a Gaussmeter measuring the magnetic field at the pole ends. Laboratory tests indicated that it could reliably detect the onset of transformation. However, the sensor was sensitive to both the steel properties and the position of the steel. To overcome this, an eddy current sensor was incorporated into the final measurement head. The instrument gave results which were consistent with material property variations, provided the lift off variations were below 3Hz. The results indicated that for a grade 1916 carbon- manganese steel, the signal variation was reduced from 37% to 2%, and the resulting output was related to the steel property variations. The second of these prototypes was based on a dc electromagnetic E-core, with Hall probes in each of the three poles. 'Cold' calibration tests were used to decouple the steel and the lift-off. The results indicated that there was an error of 3-4% ferrite/mm at high ferrite fractions. At lower fractions the error was higher due to the instrument’s insensitivity to lift-off. The resulting output again showed a relationship with varying steel strip properties. ft was also shown that a finite element model could be calibrated to experimental results for a simple C-core geometry such that the output was sensitive to 0.2% of the range. This is required to simulate the sensor to resolve to 10% ferrite