NON-DESTRUCTIVE TESTING OF ARTIFICIAL JOINTS WITH DEFECTS BY EDDY CURRENT METHOD

This work deals with non-destructive testing of artificial joints made from the austenitic steel SUS316L based on eddy current method. The technique is appropriate for final investigation of artificial joints before insertion the prosthesis into human body to avoid repeated operations. The most commonly implanted joints - knee and hip joint are evaluated in this study. The eddy current probe consists of one coil, which has both the excitation and sensing functions. Five detects are inspected using three different frequencies. The numerical simulations from Opera software with experiments are compared in this article to obtain the most appropriate frequency. The aim of this work is evaluation which frequency provides the biggest magnitude difference between individual simulated signals with various depths if surface defects are inspected