ARTICLE IN PRESS

NDT&E International 42 (2009) 618621

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NDT&E International
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ndteint

Application of eddy current nondestructive method for determination

of surface carbon content in carburized steels
Meisam Sheikh Amiri , Mehrdad Kashe
Department of Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering, Engineering Faculty, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

a r t i c l e in f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Apart from traditional application of nondestructive eddy current technique for detection of
Received 9 February 2009 discontinuities, the method has been recently used to determine physical and metallurgical properties
Received in revised form of steel parts. In the present research the application of eddy current method for determination of
15 April 2009
surface carbon of steel parts in gas carburizing process has been studied. The relation between the
Accepted 26 April 2009
Available online 10 May 2009
surface carbon content and various parameters such as impedance, phase angle and voltage has been
established. Besides the effect of carbon content of the impedance plain has been investigated. The
Keywords: study shows that the best relation (R2 0.91) can be achieved using phase angle.
Carburization & 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Eddy current
Surface carbon content

1. Introduction Carburizing has long been used in industry to improve surface

In the recent years, a number of researches have been
conducted using EC method. These researches have been mainly
focused on two major elds: detection of defects and prediction of
physical and metallurgical properties of materials.
Restivo [1] and Hagemair [2] have published a paper on the
general aspects of eddy current and its application for defects
detection. In an extensive research, Kogon et al. [3] have inspected
the effect of the carbon content on the magnetic and electrical
properties of thermally treated carbon steels. Recently, Konoplyk
et al. [4] have demonstrated a good relationship between
hardness of ductile cast iron and the induced voltage using eddy
current method. Cech [5] and Uchimoto et al. [6] in two separate
researches have examined this relation in gray cast iron as well as
lift-off effect on the responses. Establishing a relation between
harmonic analysis of induced current with the depth of decarbur-
ization, Mercier et al. [7] concluded the EC method can be used
to detect decarburization depth during heat treatment of steels.
More recently, the percent of pearlite in microstructure [8],
precipitation hardening process [9] and estimating of wear
resistance [10], have been studied using EC method.
With the growing demands for nondestructive measuring of
physical and mechanical properties of materials in mass produc-
tion lines, there is a strong potential for research on the new
applications for the nondestructive eddy current method.
 Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 9153158253; fax: +98 5118763305.
E-mail address: meisam2542@yahoo.com (M. Sheikh Amiri).
hardness and fatigue resistance of steel parts while maintaining
the toughness of the core.
In modern carburizing processes, low-carbon steel is exposed
to a carbon-enriched atmosphere at temperatures between
875925 1C for a proper time which increases the carbon content
of the surface while the core of the sample maintains its primary
chemical composition [11]. The part, eventually, quench in a
medium to insure phase transformation to martensite takes
place. Proper control of surface carbon content is a key factor in
performing a successful carburizing process and providing
essential mechanical properties for the part.
2. Experimental procedure
A standard carburizing low-carbon low-alloy steel (AISI 4118)
has been used in this study. The chemical composition of the steel
is given in Table 1.
Sixteen rod specimens of 15 cm length and 2.2 cm diameter
were prepared for the carburizing process. The process was
carried on for 8 h in 900 1C for all samples in a gas carburizing
furnace (SIB 210). An endothermic atmosphere was produced
using natural gas. Controlled carbon potentials in the furnace
were different for each sample but maintained in the range of
0.40.9 %C. As a result, samples with various surface carbon
contents ranging from 0.4 to 0.9 %C were produced. This range is
close to the range been normally used in industrial gas heat
treatments such as carburizing and normalizing in controlled
atmosphere. To insure uniform microstructure, before testing, all
the samples were normalized using an induction heating furnace.

0963-8695/$ - see front matter & 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ndteint.2009.04.008
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M. Sheikh Amiri, M. Kashe / NDT&E International 42 (2009) 618621 619

Speed, power and frequency for induction heating were xed for
all samples. The parameters are listed in Table 2.
Surface carbon contents of all samples were determined
using quantometry method. The results for carbon content at
the surface of each sample are given in Table 3. Subsequently
samples for metallographical examination were prepared from
each specimen.
A coil of 2.3 cm internal diameter and 10 cm length was used
for the study. A sinusoidal current with a frequency ranging from
650 to 4 kHz was applied using an encircling coil. A schematic
picture of the used eddy current system is shown in Fig. 1. The
eddy current testing was performed at 30 1C.
For each sample, certain current and voltage signals were used
and impendence and phase angle as well as real (R) and imaginary
(X) parts of impendence were calculated. Regression analysis was
used for determination of the optimum test frequency.
3. Results and discussion
Two main variables in all heat treatment cycles are time and
temperature. By xing these two factors as well as chemical
composition of the steel, the only variable affecting surface carbon
content of the parts in the gas carburizing cycle process is furnace
carbon potential.
To avoid any unwanted microstructure irregularities at the
surface of the carburized samples, all samples were subsequently
normalized, using induction heating technique (Table 2). Because
of very short austenization time in the induction heating method,
the process insures minimal decarburization during normal-
ization which could have affected the response of samples
to eddy current [7,11]. Fig. 2 shows the micrographs of sample
before and after normalization process. As can be seen, the
microstructure of sample after normalization (Fig. 2b) is
homogenized and the average grain size for all samples (ASTM
standard E-112-96) is 10. Micrographs and depth prole of
hardness of two normalized samples that have minimum (0.44)
and maximum (0.91) surface carbon contents are shown in Figs. 3
and 4, respectively. The minimum and maximum amount of
pearlite in the microstructure at 0.1 mm beneath the surface was
measured as 58% and 83%, respectively.
The response of eddy current testing is affected by two major
parameters of the sample. These two parameters are microstruc-
ture and residual stress [2]. Due to normalization of samples
and obtained microstructure (ferrite-pearlite), residual stress is
not present in any of the samples. Microstructure is directly
inuenced by chemical composition, therefore, it is possible that
the response of eddy current testing is indirectly affected by
chemical composition, if a similar heat treatment cycle with a
single cooling rate has been chosen (Fig. 5).
In each frequency, regression analysis was applied between
percentage of surface carbon content and any parameter that was
measured or calculated in eddy current system .The measured
parameter is induced voltage and the calculated parameters are
impendence of coil and phase angle. Eventually the correlation
coefcient (R2) was calculated for each parameter.
The maximum R2 (0.91) was observed in 650 Hz frequency
which indicates maximum relationship between surface carbon
content and all the parameters. Thus, 650 Hz frequency was
selected for all experiments in this research.
Fig. 6 shows, the relationship between applied and induced
voltage with surface carbon content in 650 Hz frequency. As can
be seen, the maximum R2 that expresses the relationship between
the two parameters is relatively low. The maximum obtained R2 is
0.69 which was observed at 650 Hz between induced voltage and
surface carbon content. To nd a better relationship, Voltage (V)
and intensity (I) of the coil were used to calculate the impedance
(Z) and phase angle (j) of the coil for all samples using Eqs. (1)
and (2), respectively [12].
V
Z (1)
I
 
Dt
j 360 (2)
T
where Dt is the time difference between two adjacent peaks and T
is the wave length.
The calculated impedance (Z) for each sample was divided by
the impedance of the empty coil (Z0) to make a new parameter.
This parameter (Z/Z0) is called normalized impedance [2,12,13].
The relationship between surface carbon content and normalized
impedance is shown in Fig. 7 which indicates a fairly good
relationship (R2 0.82).
Fig. 8 shows the best relationship, which is, between surface
carbon content and phase angle (j). The correlation coefcient is

Table 1
Chemical composition in weight percentage.

C Si Mn P S Cr Mo Ni Al Fe

0.196 0.25 0.75 0.02 0.008 0.8 0.18 0.06 0.01 Rest

Table 2
Model, speed, power and frequency that were used in induction process for
normalization of all samples.

Model Speed Power Frequency

Inductoheat (Banyard) 8 mm/s 58 kW 30 kHz

Fig. 1. General synopsis of the experimental apparatus.

Table 3
Surface carbon content of samples used in the research.

Sample no. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Percentage of surface carbon 0.83 0.45 0.53 0.71 0.81 0.88 0.68 0.65 0.91 0.72 0.88 0.74 0.78 0.44 0.55 0.88
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Fig. 2. Micrographs of surface of samples (a) before and (b) after normalization.

Fig. 3. Micrographs of surface of samples with (a) minimum and (b) maximum percentages of carbon.

Fig. 5. Schematic diagram of effect of chemical composition and microstructure on

response of eddy current testing.

decreases with increasing the percentage of carbon. It is known

that V has a direct relation with Z, therefore, V also decreases.
To have a better understanding of carbon content effect on EC
response, especially phase angle (j), of the steel, the impedance
Fig. 4. Depth prole of hardness of samples with (a) minimum (b) maximum
percentages of carbon.
plane (normalized X vs. normalized R) can be drawn for all
samples.
To calculate the normalized X and R, at rst, resistance (R) and
reactance (X) of the coil (real and imaginary parts of Z,
0.91 at 650 Hz frequency. As can be seen, in Figs. 35 Z, j and V respectively) were calculated for each sample
decrease with increase in surface carbon content. This could be
~
Z ~
R i~
X jRj jZj cosj jXj jZj sinj (3)
due to the increase in pearlite percentage with increasing carbon
content. Increasing in percentage of pearlite, in turn, results in Eventually, Eqs (4) and (5) were used to calculate the normal-
increasing the resistance (R) and decreasing in the permeability ized X and the normalized R, respectively [2,12,13].
(m) [3]. Having the relation between l and X in mind, the
reduction of X with m can be established. In ferromagnetic alloys Normalized R R  R0 =X 0 (4)
such as steel, the effect of permeability or reactance is stronger
than the effect of resistance [3,12,13], as a result, the impedance Normalized X X=X 0 (5)
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M. Sheikh Amiri, M. Kashe / NDT&E International 42 (2009) 618621
Fig. 6. Relationship between surface percentage of carbon and applied (Vx) and
induced (Vy) voltages at 650 Hz.
Fig. 7. Relationship between normalized impedance and percentage of surface
carbon at 650 Hz.
Fig. 8. Relationship between phase angle and percentage of surface carbon at
650 Hz.
The result of the calculation is presented in Fig. 9. Fig. 9
demonstrates the effect of surface carbon content on the location
of impedance point which in turn can be used to calculate j as
well. Fig. 9, again, shows that the amount of j decreases with
increasing carbon content of the samples.
Finally, to improve the accuracy of the results and make the
presented method more applicable to industrial applications, one
should bear in mind that ne adjustment of the readings could
be made regarding the general factors affecting accuracy of EC
responds of the materials. The most important parameters
621
Fig. 9. Impedance plane and effect of carbon on location of impedance point.
affecting EC responds are temperature of the samples, edge effect
and ll factor [2,12,13].
4. Conclusion
In this study, eddy current method was used to determine the
surface carbon content in AISI 4118 steel in gas carburizing
process. It was shown, any measured (Vx, Vy) or calculated (Z, j)
parameter have good relationship with surface carbon content.
For all samples, the measured and calculated parameters
decreased with increasing carbon content at the surface. The best
relation between carbon content at the surface of the carburized
samples and EC response of the samples (R2 0.91) can be
established using phase angle.
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