VARIATION OF EDDY CURRENT DENSITY DISTRIBUTION AND ITS EFFECT ON CRACK SIGNAL IN EDDY CURRENT NON-DESTRUCTIVE TESTING

The paper deals with variation of eddy current density distribution along material depth and investigates an effect of the variation on a crack signal in eddy current non-destructive testing. Four coaxial rectangular tangential coils are used to induce eddy currents in a tested conductive object. The exciting coils are driven independently by phase-shifted AC currents; a ratio of amplitudes of the exciting currents is continuously changed to vary the distribution of eddy current density along material depth under a circular pick-up coil positioned in centre between the exciting coils. Dependences of a crack signal amplitude and its phase on the ratio are evaluated and special features are extracted. It is revealed that the dependences are strongly influenced by depth of a crack, and thus the extracted features can enhance evaluation of a detected crack.