Forward and inverse analysis for non-

destructive testing based on electromagnetic

computation methods

Mingyang Lu
The University of Manchester
Outline of the project
 Project main proposals
• Forward solvers
1) Finite element method based solver
A custom finite edge-element solver is developed for calculating crack response in planar metallic
samples. Two applications – fast frequency-sweeping and fast scanning sensors over a metallic plate
specimen.
2) Dodd and Deeds method based solver
Two types of novel algorithms based on the Dodd and Deeds formulations are developed to solve the
permeability and thickness measurement error caused by the sensor-sample lift-off effects.

• Inverse solvers
1) Conductivity Invariance Phenomenon (CIP)
A new Conductivity Invariance Phenomenon with a controlled lift-off is discovered and studied. It is
found that at certain lift-off, the effect of conductivity influence on inductance is eliminated/reduced.
Based on this phenomenon, a novel permeability measurement approach is proposed.
2) A modified Newton–Raphson method
This solver considers the cross-sensitivity of the complex spectra from a multi-frequency inductance
spectra to the four parameters namely, permeability, conductivity, thickness and lift-off with tested
sensors. Further, an iterative algorithm is proposed to determine the solution of the unique values for
the four variables from the spectra.
 Forward solvers
• FEM based solver
Merits:
1) The proposed FEM solver can significantly reduce the intensive
computation burden by introducing a novel sparse stiffness matrix
adjustment technique – re-ordering and decomposing the stiffness matrix so
that most of the matrix element could be distributed close to the diagonal of
the matrix, which could notably reduce the calculation burden. In addition, an
optimised initial guess/preconditioning is included, which could significantly
accelerating the convergence of the solving process. Moreover, a weakly
coupled approximation is proposed for simplifying the FEM solver under the
low frequency. As a result, there is no need to define a larger mesh region
encompassing the object due to the diffusion effect.
2) With this solver, there is no need to mesh the excitation coil and the object
only needs to mesh once for different frequencies and sensors positions.
 Applications in FEM based
forward solvers
• FEM based solver

a) b)
Sparse stiffness matrix elements distributions a)Before re-orderings and
decomposition b)After re-orderings and decomposition
 Applications in FEM based
forward solvers
Non-destructive testing model verification
Frequency=100 kHz Conductivity=100k S/m
 FEM based
Forward solvers applications
• The frame of the NDT model
-3
eddy current x 10
0.02 1.5 Ampere/(cm^3) eddy current x 10
0.02 1.5

0.018
0.018

0.016
0.016

0.014
0.014
1
1
0.012
0.012
(m)
y axis

y axis
0.01 0.01

0.008 0.008

0.5 0.5
0.006 0.006

0.004 0.004

0.002 0.002

0 0 0 0
0 0.002 0.004 0.006 0.008 0.01 0.012 0.014 0.016 0.018 0.02 0 0.002 0.004 0.006 0.008 0.01 0.012 0.014 0.016 0.018 0.02
(m)
x axis x axis
The simulation of voltage on the received
coil in the NDT model
Target Conductivity=100k S/m
V/v 2.00E-06

1.00E-06

0.00E+00 Y axis(m)
-0.005 2.60208521396521E-18 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02
-1.00E-06

-2.00E-06

-3.00E-06

-4.00E-06

-5.00E-06

-6.00E-06

-7.00E-06

-8.00E-06

real part imaginary part

The simulation of voltage on the received
coil in the NDT model
Target Conductivity=1M S/m
V/v 4.00E-05

3.00E-05

2.00E-05

1.00E-05

0.00E+00 Y axis(m)
-0.005 2.60208521396521E-18 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02

-1.00E-05

-2.00E-05

-3.00E-05

-4.00E-05

-5.00E-05

-6.00E-05

real part imaginary part

The simulation of voltage on the received
coil in the NDT model
Target Conductivity=10M S/m
V/v 2.00E-04

1.50E-04

1.00E-04

5.00E-05

0.00E+00 Y axis(m)
-0.005 2.60208521396521E-18 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02

-5.00E-05

-1.00E-04

real part imaginary part

The simulation of impedance caused by the whole
non-crack target with respect to varying frequency
Impedance real part
Z/ohm 3.00E-08

2.50E-08

2.00E-08

1.50E-08

1.00E-08

5.00E-09

0.00E+00
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 f/Hz
0E+ 0E+ 0E+ 0E+ 0E+ 0E+ 0E+ 0E+ 0E+ 0E+
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1.

Impedance imaginary part

Z/ohm
0.00E+00
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
f/Hz
0E+ 0E+ 0E+ 0E+ 0E+ 0E+ 0E+ 0E+ 0E+ 0E+
-1.00E-09
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1.

-2.00E-09

-3.00E-09

-4.00E-09

-5.00E-09

-6.00E-09

-7.00E-09
 The simulation of impedance caused by the crack
on the target with respect to varying frequency

Z/ohm Impedance real part Z/ohm Impedance imaginary part

2.00E-09
2.00E-10
1.00E-10 f/Hz
1.50E-09
0.00E+00
1.00E+00 1.00E+02 1.00E+04 1.00E+06 1.00E+08 1.00E+10
-1.00E-10
1.00E-09
-2.00E-10
-3.00E-10
5.00E-10
-4.00E-10
-5.00E-10
0.00E+00
1.00E+00 1.00E+02 1.00E+04 1.00E+06 1.00E+08 1.00E+10 -6.00E-10
-7.00E-10
-5.00E-10 f/Hz
-8.00E-10

More details are displayed on following publications:

Acceleration of Frequency Sweeping in Eddy Current Computation
M. Lu, A.J. Peyton, and W. Yin
IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 53, pp. 7, 2017.
 Applications in 2M elements head model

Ampere/(cm^3)

cm

cm

cm

cm

Ampere/(cm^3)
Ampere/(cm^3)
cm

cm
cm
2M elements normal head model tissues

White
cm cm cm

cm cm
Grey cm

cm cm
cm

cm cm
cm
 2M elements normal head model tissues

Skull
cm cm cm

cm cm cm

Csf
cm
cm cm

cm
cm cm
 2M elements normal head model tissues

Air cavities cm cm cm

cm cm cm
Scalp & Dura
cm cm
cm

cm cm
cm
 2M elements Internal Ellipsoid shaped Stroke head
model

cm
cm cm

cm
cm cm
2M elements Internal Ellipsoid shaped Stroke
head model compare with normal
Ampere/(cm^3) Ampere/(cm^3) Ampere/(cm^3)

cm cm cm
Ampere/(cm^3) Ampere/(cm^3)
Ampere/(cm^3)

cm cm
cm
 2M elements Big peripheral stroke head model

cm cm cm

Position

cm cm cm

Currents
cm cm cm

cm cm cm
 2M elements Big peripheral stroke head model
compare with normal
Ampere/(cm^3) Ampere/(cm^3) Ampere/(cm^3)

cm cm cm
Ampere/(cm^3) Ampere/(cm^3) Ampere/(cm^3)

cm cm cm

More details are displayed on following publications:

Custom edge-element FEM solver and its application to eddy-current simulation of realistic 2M-element human brain phantom:
Applications of a Custom FEM Solver
W. Yin, M. Lu, J. Tang, Q. Zhao, Z. Zhang, K. Li, Y. Han, and A.J. Peyton
Bioelectromagnetics, DOI: 10.1002/bem.22148
 3D microstructure model generation
• 3D view of two-phase steel microstructure

RCPS

Two-phase steel
microstructure

volume fraction: 10% volume fraction: 30% volume fraction: 50%

Simulated two phase steel microstructure and initial RCPS, with an increasing volume fraction of
ferrite phase, ie.10%, 30% and 50%.
 3D microstructure model generation
• Generation of Voronoi modeling based random close packing of spheres (RCPS-VM)

Based on the Voronoi Modeling method, a microstructure with space-filling and non-overlapping
polyhedrons - Voronoi diagram are constructed.

(a) (b) (c)

Two-dimensional illustrations for constructing two-phase steel microstructure with RCPS-VM:

(a) two-phase RCPS
(b) computing the Voronoi diagram
(c) two-phase steel microstructure
Equivalent permeability of microstructure
• Effect of ferrite fraction on relative permeability

Equivalent relative permeability of austenite/ferrite in RCPS-VM microstructure with varying phase

fractions
Equivalent permeability of microstructure
• Effect of ferrite fraction on relative permeability
Assuming a custom sensor is set above the RCPS-VM microstructure

ferrite grains fraction 30% ferrite grains fraction 50% ferrite grains fraction 70%
Chromatography of magnetic H-field density when the volume fraction of ferrite grains equals 30%,
50%, and 70%
It can be easily seen that the magnetic H-field becomes weaker as the volume fraction of ferrite grains
increase, which can be interpreted from the equation (3)
More details are displayed on following publications:
Three dimensional electromagnetic mixing models for two-phase steel microstructures
W. Zhou, M. Lu, L. Zhou, L. Yin, Q. Zhao, A. Peyton, and W. Yin
Applied Sciences, DOI: 10.3390/app8040529
 Forward solvers
• Dodd and Deeds method
Merits:
The proposed solver can compensate the measurement error caused by the
lift-off during the measurement of non-ferrous plate’s thickness and ferrous
plate’s permeability.
 Applications in Dodd and Deeds based
forward solvers
• Simulation and experimental results
4
x 10 Zero cross frequency - lift-off
5
Compensated measured zero cross frequency
Compensated simulated zero cross frequency
Simulated zero cross frequency
4.5 Measured zero cross frequency
Zero cross frequency (Hz)

3.5

2.5

2
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
lift-off (m) -3
x 10
Comparisons of as-measured (uncompensated) and compensated zero cross frequencies for the sample at a range of lift-offs
More details are displayed on following publications:
A novel compensation algorithm for thickness measurement immune to lift-off variations using eddy current method
M. Lu, L. Yin, A.J. Peyton, and W. Yin
IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, vol. 65, pp. 2773 – 2779, 2016.
Reducing the Lift-Off Effect on Permeability Measurement for Magnetic Plates from Multi-frequency Induction Data
M. Lu, W. Zhu, L. Yin, A.J. Peyton, W. Yin, and Z. Qu.
IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, vol. 67, pp. 167-174, Jan. 2018.
 Inverse solvers
• Conductivity Invariance Phenomenon (CIP) based solver
Merits:
1) This method can settle the solution uniqueness problem caused by the
coupling impact between the sample’s electrical conductivity and magnetic
permeability. At certain lift-off, the inductance response would barely change
for samples with different conductivities.
2) Further, a permeability measurement method was proposed based on the
proposed Conductivity Invariance Lift-off.
 The lift-off that is immune to the conductivity
changes
10 -8 different conductivity 10 -8 different conductivity
3.3

3.24585
sigma=3.975e7 S/m
3.2 X: 0.002023
0.00203
sigma=5.962e7 S/m
Y: 3.246e-08 3.2458
sigma=7.949e7 S/m
3.1 3.24575 X: 0.002023
sigma=3.975e7 S/m
Y: 3.246e-08
sigma=5.962e7 S/m X: 0.00203
3 3.2457
sigma=7.949e7 S/m Y: 3.246e-08
Re( L)(H)

Re( L)(H)
3.24565
2.9
3.2456

2.8 3.24555

3.2455
2.7
3.24545
2.6
3.2454

2.5
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 2.02 2.025 2.03 2.035 2.04 2.045
lift-off (m) 10 -3 lift-off (m) 10 -3
Real part of inductance changes with lift-offs for different conductivity of non-magnetic slab

More details are displayed on following publications:

Conductivity Lift-off Invariance and measurement of permeability for magnetic plates

M. Lu, H. Xu, W. Zhu, L. Yin, Q. Zhao, A.J. Peyton, and W. Yin
NDT & E International, vol. 95, pp. 36 – 44, 2018.
 Inverse solvers
• A modified Newton–Raphson method based solver
Merits:
1) The proposed inverse method can simultaneously reconstruct steel plates’
permeability, conductivity, thickness and lift-off (i.e. the distance between the
sensor and test sample).
2) For the proposed inverse solver, a dynamic rank method was proposed to
eliminate the ill-conditioning of parameters’ sensitivity matrix during the
process of reconstruction.
The principle of the dynamic rank method is indexing the sensitivity matrix
columns whose elements are all zeros. Then reduce the rank of the
sensitivity matrix by omitting the indexed columns. For each step in the
iterative procedure, the corresponded rows of the estimated parameter
arrays should be valued zeros.
 Multi-frequency spectra of DP (Dual-phase)
600 property profile sensitivity
• Frequency-dependent sensitivity of the sample electrical
conductivity
10 -12
0 10 -13
4
T
0.01x[ r
u r t r l r]
T
(H/(S/m))

-0.2 0.05x[ r
u r t r l r]

(H/(S/m))
2
T
0.1x[ r
u r t r l r]
T
-0.4 0.5x[ r
u r t r l r]
0

T
Sensitivity Re( L)/

0.01x[ u r t r l r]

Sensitivity Im( L)/

r
-0.6 -2 T
0.05x[ r
u r t r l r]
T
0.1x[ r
u r t r l r]
-0.8 -4 T
0.5x[ r
u r t r l r]

-1 -6

-1.2 -8
10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5
frequency (Hz) frequency (Hz)
 Multi-frequency spectra of DP (Dual-phase)
600 property profile sensitivity
• Frequency-dependent sensitivity of the sample relative
permeability
10 -8 10 -9
2.2 6
T
0.01x[ u r t r l r] 0.01x[ u t l ]T
r r r r r
2 0.05x[ u t l]
T 4 0.05x[ u t l ]T
r r r r r r r r
Sensitivity Re( L)/ u (H)

Sensitivity Im( L)/ u (H)

0.1x[ u t l] 0.1x[ u t l ]T
r r r r r r r r
1.8 T
0.5x[ u t l] 2 0.5x[ u t l ]T
r r r r r r r r

1.6
0

1.4
-2
1.2

-4
1

0.8 -6
10 1 10 2
10 3
10 4
10 5 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5
frequency (Hz)
frequency (Hz)
 Multi-frequency spectra of DP (Dual-phase)
600 property profile sensitivity
• Frequency-dependent sensitivity of the sample thickness

10 -3 10 -4
2.5 5
T
0.01x[ r
u r t r l r]
2 T
0.05x[ u r t r l r]
r 0
Sensitivity Re( L)/ t (H/m)

Sensitivity Im( L)/ t (H/m)

T
0.1x[ u t l]
r r r r
1.5
T
0.5x[ r
u r t r l r]
-5
1 T
0.01x[ r
u r t r l r]
T
0.05x[ u r t r l r]
0.5 r
-10 T
0.1x[ r
u r t r l r]
T
0 0.5x[ r
u r t r l r]

-15
-0.5

-1 -20
10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5
frequency (Hz) frequency (Hz)
 Multi-frequency spectra of DP (Dual-phase)
600 property profile sensitivity
• Frequency-dependent sensitivity of the sensors lift-offs

10 -4 10 -4
6 3.5
T
0.01x[ u r t r l r]
T 0.01x[ r
u r t r l r]
r
4 3 T
0.05x[ u r t r l r]
T 0.05x[ r
u r t r l r]
r
Sensitivity Re( L)/ l (H/m)

Sensitivity Im( L)/ l (H/m)

T
0.1x[ u r t r l r]
T 0.1x[ r
u r t r l r]
r
2 2.5 T
0.5x[ u r t r l r]
T 0.5x[ r
u r t r l r]
r

0 2

-2 1.5

-4 1

-6 0.5

-8 0
10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5 10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5
frequency (Hz) frequency (Hz)
 List of Publications
Publications related to custom edge-element FEM solver:
Published:
Acceleration of Frequency Sweeping in Eddy Current Computation
M. Lu, A.J. Peyton, and W. Yin
IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 53, pp. 7, 2017.

Acceleration of Eddy Current Computation for Scanning Probes

M. Lu, H. Xu, W. Zhu, L. Yin, Q. Zhao, A.J. Peyton, and W. Yin
Insight, Accepted/In press

Modelling of eddy current distributions in a realistic 2M elements human head phantom with a custom built edge-element FEM solver
W. Yin, M. Lu, H. Xu, W. Zhu, L. Yin, Q. Zhao, and A.J. Peyton
Bioelectromagnetics, DOI: 10.1002/bem.22148

Three dimensional electromagnetic mixing models for two-phase steel microstructures

W. Zhou, M. Lu, L. Zhou, L. Yin, Q. Zhao, A. Peyton, and W. Yin
Applied Sciences, DOI:10.3390/app8040529

To be submitted:
A novel equivalent-effect method for eddy current simulation of thin metallic structures using the Finite-Element Method
To be submitted on NDT & E International

Forward and inverse analysis for non-destructive testing based on electromagnetic methods
A book to be submitted on Science Press
 List of Publications
Publications related to novel measurement algorithms based on Dodd and Deeds formulation:
Published:
A novel compensation algorithm for thickness measurement immune to lift-off variations using eddy current method
M. Lu, L. Yin, A.J. Peyton, and W. Yin
IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, vol. 65, pp. 2773 – 2779, 2016.

Reducing the Lift-Off Effect on Permeability Measurement for Magnetic Plates from Multi-frequency Induction Data
M. Lu, W. Zhu, L. Yin, A.J. Peyton, W. Yin, and Z. Qu.
IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, vol. 67, pp. 167-174, Jan. 2018.

Conductivity Lift-off Invariance and measurement of permeability for magnetic plates

M. Lu, H. Xu, W. Zhu, L. Yin, Q. Zhao, A.J. Peyton, and W. Yin
NDT & E International, vol. 95, pp. 36 – 44, 2018.

A novel dual modality sensor with sensitivities to permittivity, conductivity and permeability
J.R.S. Avila, K.Y. How, M. Lu, and W. Yin
IEEE Sensors Journal, vol. 18, pp. 356-362, 2017.

To be submitted:
Inversion analysis of the spectra of a multi-frequency electromagnetic sensor to determine the magnetic permeability, electrical conductivity
and thickness of steel strip
M. Lu, W. Zhu, L. Yin, A.J. Peyton, and W. Yin

Permeability Invariance Phenomenon and measurement of conductivity for ferrite metallic plates
M. Lu, L. Yin, Q. Zhao, A. Peyton, and W. Yin
Other publications:
List of Publications
Detection of Corrosion Pits Based on an Analytically Optimised Eddy Current Sensor
L. Yin, S. Rodriguez, R. Leiva, R. Akid, M. Lu and W. Yin
Insight Journal, Accepted/In press

Level Measurement for Saline with a Small Surface Area Using High Frequency Electromagnetic Sensing Technique
T. Yang, Q. Zhao, K.Y. How, K. Xu, M. Lu, Y. Xie, and W. Yin
Measurement, vol. 101, pp. 118-125, 2017.

Conference publications:
Prediction of the asymptotical magnetic polarization tensors for cylindrical samples using the boundary element method
M. Lu, Q. Zhao, P. Hu, and W. Yin
IEEE Sensors Applications Symposium (SAS) Conference, 2015

Determining the magnetic permeability of ferrite steel strip by a custom inversion method
M. Lu , W. Zhu , W. Yin , F.D. van den Berg , H. Yang and A. J. Peyton
ECNDT Conference 2018

A custom edge-element FEM solver for eddy current NDT

M. Lu, N. A.J. Peyton, and W. Yin,
BINDT Conference, 2015

Acceleration of Sweeping Frequency in Eddy Current Computation

M. Lu, N. Karimian, A.J. Peyton, and W. Yin
BINDT Conference, 2016

Defect representation using the electromagnetic tensor formulation for eddy current NDT
N. Karimian, M. Lu, J. Wilson, W. Yin, and A. J. Peyton,
BINDT Conference, 2016