Structural Coupled Electromagnetic Sensing of Defects Diagnostic System

Magnetic flux leakage (MFL) detection methods are widely used to detect pipeline defects. However, it is limited by the detection orientation and magnetization. Besides, bulky excitation systems are incapable of adapting to the complex detection environments. This paper proposes a new Electromagnetic Structured Coupling sensing of merging Alternating Current Field Measurement (ACFM) and MFL within a multi-parameter system for different types of pipeline defects detection. In particular, a novel electromagnetic coupling sensor structure is proposed which enables simultaneous interaction between the excitation modes of Yoke and coil. Magnetic Yoke is integrated to magnetizing the axial pipeline to detect the circumferential surface and subsurface defects while the coil excites the circumferential uniform alternating current field and recognizes the axial defect. The novel structured sensing is highly sensitivity to the detection of both surface and subsurface defects. Simulation and experiments on defects in several samples have been conducted to validate the reliability and efficiency of the proposed system

Dynamic Rail Near-Surface Inspection of Multiphysical Coupled Electromagnetic and Thermography Sensing System

The effectiveness of railway fault inspection has remained challenging. Conventional techniques are still functionally limited and unable to meet the increasing demand of railway diagnosis. To mitigate the variety of rail fault detection problems, this article proposes a dynamic railway inspection system based on multiphysical coupled electromagnetic and thermography sensing. It further shows the development and construction of a new inverted L-type magnet yoke abreast with volumetric coil array. The novel structure can not only significantly enhance the sensitivity and detectability of the region of interest (ROI), but also effectively detect the subsurface defects with the compensation of coils array due to the coupled electromagnetic field. Furthermore, the theoretical analysis of the coupled physical fields has been derived and proved to be consistent with the numerical simulation results. A rail test sample with various defects is carried out to verify the feasibility of the proposed system. Additionally, a metric learning post-processing algorithm has been conducted for distilling eddy current signals and thermograms to improve the accuracy of the detection results. On-site experimental and contrast results with various levels of performance validation have demonstrated that the integrated system is well suited for dynamic rail inspection on near-surface cracks at speed of 1 km/h

Determining position and orientation of a 3-wheel robot on a pipe using an accelerometer

Accurate positioning of robots on pipes is a challenge in automated industrial inspection. It is typically achieved using expensive and cumbersome external measurement equipment. This paper presents an Inverse Model method for determining the orientation angle (α ) and circumferential position angle (ω) of a 3 point of contact robot on a pipe where measurements are taken from a 3-axis accelerometer sensor. The advantage of this system is that it provides absolute positional measurements using only a robot mounted sensor. Two methods are presented which follow an analytical approximation to correct the estimated values. First, a correction factor found though a parametric study between the robot geometry and a given pipe radius, followed by an optimization solution which calculates the desired angles based on the system configuration, robot geometry and the output of a 3-axis accelerometer. The method is experimentally validated using photogrammetry measurements from a Vicon T160 positioning system to record the position of a three point of contact test rig in relation to a test pipe in a global reference frame. An accelerometer is attached to the 3 point of contact test rig which is placed at different orientation (α ) and circumferential position (ω) angles. This work uses a new method of processing data from an accelerometer sensor to obtain the α and ω angles. The experimental results show a maximum error of 3.40° in α and 4.17° in ω , where the ω circumferential positional error corresponds to ±18mm for the test pipe radius of 253mm

Investigation of wireless power transfer-based eddy current non-destructive testing and evaluation

PhD ThesisEddy current testing (ECT) is a non-contact inspection widely used as non-destructive testing and evaluation (NDT&E) of pipeline and rail lines due to its high sensitivity to surface and subsurface defects, cheap operating cost, tolerance to harsh environments, and capability of a customisable probe for complex geometric surfaces. However, the remote field of transmitter-receiver (Tx-Rx) ECT depends on the Tx-Rx coils gap, orientation, and lift-off distance, despite each coil responding to the effect of sample parameters according to its liftoff distance. They bring challenges to accurate defect detection and characterisation by weakening the ECT probe’s transfer response, affecting sensitivity to the defect, distorting the amplitude of the extracted features, and responding with fewer feature points at non-efficient energy transfer. Therefore, this study proposed a magnetically-coupled resonant wireless power transfer (WPT)-based ECT (WPTECT) concept to build the relationship between Tx-Rx coil at maximum energy transfer response, including shifting and splitting (resonance) frequency behaviour. The proposed WPTECT system was investigated in three different studies viz., (1) investigated the multiple resonance point features for detection and characterisation of slots on two different aluminium samples using a series-series (SS) topology of WPTECT; (2) mapped and scanned pipeline with a natural dent defect using a flexible printed coil (FPC) array probe based on the parallel-parallel (PP) topology of WPTECT; and (3) evaluated five different WPTECT topologies for optimal response and extracted features and characterised entire parameters of inclined angular Rolling Contact Fatigue (RCF) cracks in a rail-line material via an optimised topology. Multiple feature extraction, selection, and fusion were evaluated for the defect profile and compared in the study, unattainable by other ECT methods. The first study's contribution investigated multiple resonances and principal component analysis (PCA) features of the transfer response from scanning (eight) slots on two aluminium samples. The results have shown the potential of the multiple features for slot depth and width characterisation and demonstrated that the eddy-current density is highest at two points proportionate to the slot width. The second study's contribution provided a larger area scanning capability in a single probe amenable to complex geometrical structures like curvature surfaces. Among the extracted individual and fused features for defect reconstruction, the multi-layer feed-forward Deep learning-based multiple feature fusion has better 3D defect reconstruction, whilst the second resonances feature provided better local information than the first one for investigating pipeline dent area. The third study's contribution optimised WPTECT topology for multiple feature points capability and its optimal features extraction at the desired lift-off conditions. The PP and combined PP and SS (PS-PS) WPTECT topologies responded with multiple resonances compared to the other three topologies, with single resonance, under the same experimental situation. However, the extracted features from PS-PS topology provided the lowest sensitivity to lift-off distances and reconstructed depth, width, and inclined angle of RCF cracks with a maximum correlation, R2 -value of 96.4%, 93.1%, and 79.1%, respectively, and root-mean-square-error of 0.05mm, 0.08mm, and 6.60 , respectively. The demonstrated magnetically-coupled resonant WPTECT Tx-Rx probe characterised defects in oil and gas pipelines and rail lines through multiple features for multiple parameters information. Further work can investigate the phase of the transfer response as expected to offer robust features for material characterisation. The WPTECT system can be miniaturised using WPT IC chips as portable systems to characterise multiple layers parameters. It can further evaluate the thickness and gap between two concentric conductive tubes; pressure tube encircled by calandria tube in nuclear reactor fuel channels.PTDF Nigeri