NDT Eddy Current Testing Module

UNIT-5
Overview of
Eddy Current Testing
Detailed Learning Objectives (DLOs)
To understand the questions in brief
What is ?
Why is ?
Eddy Testing!!!
Eddy Current Testing
Electrical currents are generated in a conductive material by an

induced alternating magnetic field. The electrical currents are
called eddy currents because the flow in circles at and just below
the surface of the material. Interruptions in the flow of eddy
currents, caused by imperfections, dimensional changes, or changes
in the material's conductive and permeability properties, can be
detected with the proper equipment.
• Eddy current testing can be used on all electrically conducting materials
with a reasonably smooth surface.
• The test equipment consists of a generator (AC power supply), a test
coil and recording equipment, e.g. a galvanometer or an oscilloscope
• Used for crack detection, material thickness measurement (corrosion
detection), sorting materials, coating thickness measurement, metal
detection, etc.
Principle of Eddy Current Testing (I)
• When a AC passes through a

test coil, a primary magnetic
field is set up around the coil
• The AC primary field induces
eddy current in the test
object held below the test
coil
• A secondary magnetic field
arises due to the eddy current
Basic Principle of Eddy Testing
• EC testing works on the principles of electromagnetic induction. In this technique, a
coil (also called probe or sensor) is excited with sinusoidal alternating current
(frequency, f, ~ 50 Hz-5 MHz, ~ 100 mA). Following the Ampere’s law, this current
generates primary magnetic field in the vicinity of the coil. When an electrically
conducting material is brought close to this coil, eddy currents are induced in the
material according to the Faraday’s law.
In fig. Principle of eddy current testing (left) and distortion of eddy current due to crack, edge-effect, surface crack,
and sub-surface void (right).
• The eddy currents have very unique and interesting properties such as:
They are induced currents that exist only in electrically conducting materials
They are always in closed loops, usually parallel to the coil winding.
They are distorted by defects such as cracks and corrosion wall loss and by
discontinuities such as edge-effect, end-effect.
They attenuate with depth (also axially or laterally)
Their intensity depends on material properties, electromagnetic coupling (lift-
off/fillfactor) and excitation frequency, but maximum on the surface.
Principle of Eddy Current Testing (II)
• The strength of the

secondary field depends on
electrical and magnetic
properties, structural
integrity, etc., of the test
object.
• If cracks or inhomogeneities
are present, the eddy
current, and hence the
secondary field is affected.
Eddy Current Instruments
Voltmete
r Coil's
Coil magnetic field
Eddy current's
magnetic
field
Eddy
currents
Conductive
material
Different types of EC probes.
Depth of Penetration
Eddy currents are closed loops of induced current circulating in
planes perpendicular to the magnetic flux. They normally travel
parallel to the coil's winding and flow is limited to the area of the
inducing magnetic field. Eddy currents concentrate near the surface
adjacent to an excitation coil and their strength decreases with
distance from the coil as shown in the image. Eddy current density
decreases exponentially with depth. This phenomenon is known as
the skin effect.
Surface Breaking Cracks
Eddy current inspection is an excellent

method for detecting surface and near
surface defects when the probable defect
location and orientation is well known.
In the lower image, there is a

flaw under the right side of the
coil and it can be see that the
eddy currents are weaker in
this area.
Successful detection requires:
1. A knowledge of probable defect type, position, and

orientation.
2. Selection of the proper probe. The probe should fit the
geometry of the part and the coil must produce eddy
currents that will be disrupted by the flaw.
3. Selection of a reasonable probe drive frequency. For
surface flaws, the frequency should be as high as possible
for maximum resolution and high sensitivity. For
subsurface flaws, lower frequencies are necessary to get
the required depth of penetration.
The depth at which eddy current density has decreased to
1/e, or about 37% of the surface density, is called the
standard depth of penetration ().
Three Major Types of Probes
• The test coils are

commonly
used in three configurations
– Surface probe
– Internal bobbin probe
– Encircling probe
Applications with Internal Bobbin Probes
• Primarily
for examination of
tubes in heat
exchangers and oil
pipes
• Become increasingly
popular due to the wide
acceptance of the
philosophy
of preventive
maintenance
Applications with Internal
Bobbin Probes
Result presentation
The impedance plane

diagram is a very useful
way of displaying eddy
current data. The strength
of the eddy currents and the
magnetic permeability of
the test material cause the
eddy current signal on the
impedance plane to react in
a variety of different ways.
Instruments
• In EC technique the alternating current through the coil is kept constant (~ few
hundred mA) and the changes in the coil impedance are measured. Since the
impedance change is very small (< micro-ohms), high precision A.C. bridge (refer
Fig.) circuits are employed. The bridge imbalance is correlated with the defect or
material attribute responsible. Typical analogue EC instrument consists of an
oscillator (excitation frequency, ~ 50 Hz-5 MHz), constant current supply (step
down from 230 V AC), a bridge circuit, amplifier, filters, oscilloscope (to display
the impedance changes in a 2-D graph or as a vector) or meter display unit or
decision making unit.
• With the micro-electronic revolution digital EC instruments have replaced the
analogue EC instruments. These instruments are smart, high-sensitive, low-cost,
automated, modular and 7 efficient. They are, in many instances, interfaced to
personal computers, industrial computers, and laptops with possibility for easy
measurements, adjustments, controls, data storage, analysis and management, all
performed by suitable software.
Applications
• Crack Detection
•Material Thickness
Measurements
•Coating Thickness
Measurements
• Conductivity
Measurements
• Material
Identification
• Heat Damage
Detection
• Case Depth
Determination
Applications
A few specific practical applications of EC technique are given below for better appreciation of the
technique.
• Quality assurance of austenitic stainless steel tubes, plates and welds.
• Inspection of installed heat exchanger/steam generator/condenser tubes (single and multi-
frequency).
• Detection of surface as well as sub-surface defects in multi-layer aircraft structures (single
frequency, multi-frequency & pulsed techniques).
• On-line automated saturation based quality assurance of steel (ferromagnetic) tubes.
• Location of garter springs in PHWRs and measurement of gap in coolant channels.
• Detection of intergranular corrosion (IGC) in stainless steels (316, 316L and 304 L).
• Detection of weld centre line in austenetic stainless steel welds at high temperature.
• Measurement of coating thickness of SiC on carbon-carbon composites.
• Sorting of materials based on electrical conductivity and magnetic permeability.
• Characterisation of heat treated as well as degraded microstructures in alloys.
• Non-contact detection of metallic objects, land mines, security metal detectors.
• Monitoring of liquid levels and for position encoding.
Applications with Encircling Probes
• Mainly for automatic production
control
• Round bars, pipes, wires and
similar items are generally
inspected with encircling probes
• Discontinuities and dimensional
changes can be revealed
• In-situ monitoring of wires used
on cranes, elevators, towing
cables is also an useful
application
Advantages of ET
•Sensitive to small cracks and other defects
•Detects surface and near surface defects
•Inspection gives immediate results
•Equipment is very portable
•Method can be used for much more than flaw detection
•Minimum part preparation is required
•Test probe does not need to contact the part
•Inspects complex shapes and sizes of conductive
materials
Limitations of ET
•Only conductive materials can be inspected
•Surface must be accessible to the probe
•Skill and training required is more extensive than other
techniques
•Surface finish and and roughness may interfere
•Reference standards needed for setup
•Depth of penetration is limited
•Flaws such as delaminations that lie parallel to the probe
coil winding and probe scan direction are undetectable
Case Study of Eddy Current Testing
•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLPGY6FOsEE



The ECI is based on inspecting a surface with a moving probe. Probe impedance is the key
parameter that is measured in ECI, and the flaw detection is based on it.
The underlying principle behind ECI is that the impedance of the probe will remain constant
even when the probe is moved on the surface, but the impedance changes when the probe
passes over a defect.
The probes impedance changes, because the surface and the probe form a combined
electric circuit that is connected with magnetic field. Changes in the inspected surface can
thus be detected as they change the impedance of the whole circuit.24
Risk of failure due to crack propagation in rails.

The constant increase of railway use
and loading capacity, the contact
between the wheels of the trains and
the rail becomes more frequent, which
increases the rail load. This makes the
rail surface prone to fatigue and
damage.
Typical locations of defects in rails.
If this surface damage is not addressed, it is likely to evolve into

transverse cracking and horizontal cracks internally. In order to
avoid accidents, human casualties, and loss of service, the early
nondestructive safety evaluation of rail surface becomes very
important.
 Rails are systematically inspected for internal and surface
defects using various NDE techniques.
 During the manufacturing process rails are examined
visually for any surface damage, while the presence of any
internal defects is assessed mainly through ultrasonic
inspection. Similarly, ultrasonic testing equipment has
been extensively used by the rail industry for the
inspection of rails in-service.
 Eddy current systems were developed to perform inspections on
rails at speeds of a few metres per minute in order to detect cracks
due to Rolling Contact Fatigue.
 The sensor is pushed by the operator along the rail head who looks
for changes in the signal caused by the presence of RCF cracks or
wheel burns. As mentioned earlier, standard ultrasonic sensors
have poor detection ability when surface-breaking or near-surface
defects are involved.
 An eddy current sensor has a far better ability in detecting this type
of defects. Nearly all relevant surface or near surface defects can
be detected using eddy current inspection. Nonetheless, attention
needs to be given to lift-off variations during eddy current inspection.
 Because of the existence of cracks, the eddy

current cannot maintain its original circular path, but
bypasses the cracks.
 When the conduction path of the eddy current in the
presence of cracks is longer than that without the
cracks, the increase of the bypass path results in
the delay in phase of eddy current.
 It is found that the phase variations of the three
cracks differ in position. This is due to the difference
in crack sizes.
Acoustic Emission Testing
Acoustic Emission (AE) testing is a powerful method

for examining behavior of materials deforming under
stress.
 AE is used for NDT, regardless of the amount of strain
energy released during the deformation and failure of
materials.
 AT is a method of monitoring or measuring this process up
to the final fracture.
 In other words, by detecting AE during the initial phases of
the generation and growth of any crack (repairable phases),
we can stop ongoing operation and test to avoid ultimate
failure of the machine or structure. This is why AT is used
for NDT.
 Acoustic emissions can result from the initiation and growth
of cracks, slip and dislocation movements, twinning, or
phase transformations in metals.
 In any case, AE’s originate with stress. When a stress is
exerted on a material, a strain is induced in the material as
well. Depending on the magnitude of the stress and the
properties of the material, an object may return to its original
dimensions or be permanently deformed after the stress is
removed.
 The most detectible acoustic emissions take place when a
loaded material undergoes plastic deformation or when a
material is loaded at or near its yield stress.
 On the microscopic level, as plastic deformation occurs,
atomic planes slip past each other through the movement of
dislocations.
 When cracks exist in a metal, the stress levels present in
front of the crack tip can be several times higher than the
surrounding area. Therefore, AE activity will also be
observed when the material ahead of the crack tip
undergoes plastic deformation (micro-yielding).
 Two sources of fatigue cracks also cause AE’s. The first
source is emissive particles (e.g. nonmetallic inclusions) at
the origin of the crack tip.
 The second source is the propagation of the crack tip that
occurs through the and small-scale cleavage produced by
triaxial stmovement of dislocations resses.
 The amount of energy released by an acoustic emission
and the amplitude of the waveform are related to the
magnitude and velocity of the source event.
 Acoustic emission (AE) is a term used to describe transient
elastic waves resulting from sudden internal
microdisplacements in a stressed material.
 AE testing approach has been recognized as a widely
accepted nondestructive testing (NDT) method commonly
used to detect and locate defects in stressed materials. This
testing method is based on the fact that materials emit
elastic mechanical waves when they are mechanically or
thermally stressed to the point where deformation or
fracturing occurs.
Application
Application
Application
 Behavior of Materials (metals, ceramics, composites, rocks,
concrete): Crack propagation, Yielding, Fatigue, Corrosion,
Stress corrosion, Creep, Fiber fracture, delamination.
 Nondestructive Testing During Manufacturing Processes:
Material processing, Phase transformation in metals and alloys
(martensitic transformation), Detection of defects such as
pores, quenching cracks, inclusions, etc., Fabrication,
Deforming processes; rolling, forging, extruding, Welding and
brazing; detects detection (inclusions, cracks, lack of
penetration), TIG, MIG, spot, electron beam, etc., Weld
monitoring for process control
Application
 Monitoring Structures: Continuous monitoring (metallic
structures, mines, etc.), Periodic testing (pressure vessels,
pipelines, bridges, cables), Loose Part Detection, Leak
Detection
 Laboratory & R&D studies, In field inspection, Structural
integrity evaluation, Vessels testing, Tank bottom testing,
Nuclear components inspection (valves, lift beams, steam
lines), Corrosion detection, Pipeline testing, Tube trailers &
high pressure gas cylinders, Reactor & high energy piping
testing, Aging aircraft evaluation, Advanced materials
testing (composites, ceramics), Production quality control,
Rocket motor testing
Application
 Other Special Applications:
(Petro) Chemical: storage tanks, reactor vessels, offshore, drill
pipe, pipelines, valves, hydro-treaters.
Power: nuclear reactors, piping, steam generators, ceramic
insulators, transformers, aerial devices.
Aircraft and aerospace: fatigue cracks, corrosion, composite
structures, etc.
Electronics: loose particles in electronic components, bonding,
substrate cracking.
Thermography
 Thermography is a popular method providing colorful
images of areas where local changes of temperature
indicate hidden structures and/or functionality of
heating or cooling systems.
 Therefore thermography is a valuable tool for
inspection of electrical components, heaters,
buildings, and also the human body.
 Thermal NDT methods involve the measurement or
mapping of surface temperatures as heat flows to, from
and/or through an object. The simplest thermal
measurements involve making point measurements with a
thermocouple.
Thermography
 The principal problem where infrared
measurements are concerned is the
emissivity, emittance of the material(s).
 Provided that an infrared camera detects and
records the radiation emitted by a material
under investigation and renders this energy to
a temperature - thermal image, the
characteristic that describes the relation
between the emitted radiation and the
material's temperature, is termed as
emissivity.
Thermography
 Emissivity plays an essential role in infrared
thermographic surveys and is dependent on
temperature, wavelength and surface
condition. A surface with a low emissivity value
(i.e. aluminium, steel, etc.) acts as a mirror
(high reflectance). However, such problem is
usually overcome using high emittance flat
paints (i.e. black colour water based paints) for
painting the investigated surface(s).
 As most of these applications rely on the detection of
anomalies in the expected temperature pattern, there
might be effects of artifacts (e.g. reflections from the
environment, air turbulences, inhomogeneous infrared
emission coefficient) that give rise to false alarms or,
even worse, hide real and critical anomalies.
 The advantage of thermal methods is that they do not
need mechanical contact with the inspected
component and that one avoids all problems related to
physical coupling e.g. of an ultrasonic transducer
which prevents rapid raster scan imaging.
Advantages/Disadvantages
Application
 A source of thermal stimulation can be in the form of:
an optical radiation, eddy currents, an electric power,
an extremely high frequency radiation, an internal
heating/cooling by gas or fluid, an external heating or
cooling air and mechanical vibrations.
 The choice of a particular source of needed energy
generator depends on determinants, such as
efficiency, required energy density, price, thermo
physical properties of examined material,
possibility/importance of optical disturbance.
 Active thermography uses external heat stimulation to test
the desirable objects. In some cases defective and healthy
area of material (or component) have equal temperature
which is not useful for revealing hidden flaws. Therefore, it
is necessary to generate dynamic temperature field (heating
or cooling). General classification of these methods is as
follows:
a) type of a thermal stimulation,
b) form and size of area of a thermal stimulation,
c) the position of the heat generator and the recording
equipment.
 Passive procedures to detect defects use temperature of
object during its operation or immediately after the end,
when temperature contrast on the surface may indicate a
possible damage.
 A result of mechanical or thermal loads, occurred during the
operation of examined object, is radiation or absorption of
the heat by defects, so they can be diagnosed (identified)
by passive methods.
 Such methods found application in building inspection,
control of industrial processes, maintenance of power
plants, air-lifted power line control, welding, and medicine
and so on.
Set Up
It is connected with application efficient infrared cameras which can quickly and
efficiently examine considerable areas [
Application
 A source of thermal stimulation can be in the form of: an
optical radiation, eddy currents, an electric power, an
extremely high frequency radiation, an internal
heating/cooling by gas or fluid,
 an external heating or cooling air and mechanical vibrations.
The choice of a particular source of needed energy
generator depends on determinants, such as efficiency,
required energy density, price, thermo physical properties of
examined material, possibility/importance of optical
disturbance.
Advantages
 Large areas can be scanned fast and with no
need to be destroyed during testing. This
results in major savings in time, people, work
and machinery.
 The infrared thermographic device is risk-free,
as it does not emit any radiation; it only
records the infrared radiation emitted from
the material that is under assessment.
 Infrared thermographic testing may be
performed during both day - and night - time
hours.
Limitaations
 Thermography, due to the fact that it uses
infrared technology it is not possible to
penetrate in extended depths (only a few
mm's). That of course is one of the main
limitations of the technique.
 Finally, environmental conditions also play an
important role on outdoor infrared
thermographic surveys utilising the passive
approach (i.e. cloud cover, solar radiation,
wind speed).
Holographic techniques
 The word holography comes from the Greek words meaning
whole record and is based on the reconstruction of light
wavefronts.
 HNDT essentially measures deformations on the surface of
the object. However, there is sufficient sensitivity to detect
sub- surface and internal defects in metallic and composite
specimens.
 Optical holography is an imaging method, which records the
amplitude and phase of light reflected from an object as an
interferometric pattern on film. It thus allows reconstruction of
the full 3-D image of the object.
 The resulting interference pattern contours the deformation
undergone by the specimen in between the two recordings.
Surface as well as sub-surface defects show distortions in the
otherwise uniform pattern.
 In addition, the characteristics of the component, such as
vibration modes, mechanical properties, residual stress etc.
can be identified through holographic inspection. Applications
in fluid mechanics and gas dynamics also abound.
 High-resolution films are another necessity for holography.
With the advent of CCD and digital image processing, digital
holographic interferometry offers tremendous flexibility and
real-time visualization.
 Furthermore, image-processing schemes can provide
computerised analysis of patterns for automated defect
detection and analysis.
Application
 HNDT is widely applied in
 aerospace to find impact damage,
 Corrosion
 cracks in high performance composite aircraft parts as well as
turbine blades
 solid propellant rocket motor casings, tyres and air foils.
 But Holography is also finding new applications in
commercial and defense related industries to investigate and
test object ranging from microscopic computer chips and
circuits to cultural articles, paintings and restoration.

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UNIT-5

Electrical currents are generated in a conductive material by an

• When a AC passes through a

• The strength of the

Eddy current inspection is an excellent

In the lower image, there is a

1. A knowledge of probable defect type, position, and

• The test coils are

The impedance plane

•Surface finish and and roughness may interfere

•Surface finish and and roughness may interfere

•Surface finish and and roughness may interfere

Risk of failure due to crack propagation in rails.

Typical locations of defects in rails.

If this surface damage is not addressed, it is likely to evolve into

 Because of the existence of cracks, the eddy

Acoustic Emission (AE) testing is a powerful method

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