Pulsed eddy current testing of ferromagnetic specimen based on variable pulse width excitation

Pulsed eddy current testing (PECT) is a rapidly developing technology which has wide potential applications. For the PECT system which uses detection coils, a no-reference-needed and more efficient method, for quantifying the wall thickness of the ferromagnetic specimen, should be found. In this paper, a kind of variable pulse width excitation is proposed. Based on the excitation, the slope that the relative increment of magnetic flux linear decays with the increase of pulse width in the semi-logarithmic domain is found to be an effective and no-reference-needed feature. First, the analytical expression for the relative increment of magnetic flux is presented, and the validity of the feature is verified by experiments. Then the potential factors affecting the feature are investigated in detail. Results show that when the electromagnetic properties of the specimen are invariant, the feature is independent of pulse width parameters, analysis interval and coatings thickness. At last, a quantitative method is demonstrated. More time could be saved for the narrow pulse comparing it with the existing excitations, and the feature could widely meet engineering applications. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.