EDDY CURRENT

INTRODUCTION
1. EDDY CURRENT INTRODUCTION

Eddy Current Testing

Introduction:

This method uses a generator, a test coil and an indicator. The generator
provides an alternating, current to the test coil, which produces a
magnetic field. It is this field which induces the Eddy Currents in the test
piece. The indicator (CRT of meter) registers the Eddy Currents and
how they are affected by the test piece.

Some uses of the Eddy Current Inspection method is:

• Detection of surface and subsurface flaws in conductive materials.

• Measuring the thickness of non-conductive coatings, such as paint, on

a conductive surface.

• Measuring the conductivity of metallic components.

Eddy Current Advantages:

• Does not require surface preparation.

• Has uncomplicated steps during set-up.

• Is extremely sensitive to flaws.

• Is very repeatable.

• Very adaptable to automation.

• High scanning speeds can be used.

• Is very accurate for dimensional analysis of flaws, of coating thickness.

Disadvantages:

• The theory requires a good academic background in electrical

principles and in mathematics.

• Extremely sensitive to surface variations, therefore, it requires a good

surface.

• Can only be used on or slightly magnetic materials.

• Crack tightness and orientation of eddy current flow to a crack or

linear discontinuity will affect the detestability.

Comparison UT v EC

Ultrasonic

 Poor at detecting surface defects

 Near sub-surface defects difficult to detect

 Good sub-surface defect detection

  Detecting flaws is strongly influenced by its orientation

 Blind to near surface defects, and subsurface defects may be

hidden by surface defects

 Couplant is required between probe and material causing

variable results

 Slow inspection speeds due to PRF typical=1kHz limited by

physics

Eddy Current

 Good at detecting surface defects

 Near sub-surface defects reasonable to detect

 Deep sub-surface defect detection is impossible

 Detection of flaws less dependent on its orientation

 Reasonable near surface defect detection. No sub-surface

detection

 No couplant required, stable results

Heat Exchangers and Boilers

HEAT EXCHANGERS
R/D Tech eddy current equipment can be used to inspect a wide
range of nonferrous tubingmaterial, including austenitic stainless
steel such as SS304/SS316, brass, copper nickel, titanium, low-fin
copper, nickel-based alloys, etc.

Carbon steel tubes can be inspected using remote field testing (RFT),
magnetic flux leakage (MFL), or IRIS. Remote field technology is suitable
for tube and shell exchangers where detection and sizing of erosion,
baffle cutting, and pitting are desired. IRIS, an affordable rotating UT
probe, is recommended to corroborate defects found by RFT and MFL.
IRIS may be used as a stand-alone technique when thickness information
is desired. If a single testing technique were to be selected, then the IRIS
would be recommended since UT may be used for almost any material,

BOILER TUBES
Remote field and IRIS are suitable techniques for inspecting boiler
tubes in the generating bank. RFT has significant advantages over IRIS
since RFT can perform a 100% tube inspection and detect damage in the
bend area. IRIS can negotiate smooth bends and can accurately size wall
loss in straight sections. IRIS is recommended as a validation tool for
sizing defects found by RFT.

Tube thinning and cracking near the drums is a known problem

addressed by R/D Tech's TC5700 with the ultrasonic option. The
TC5700 can drive IRIS or motorized probes for detection and sizing of
wall thinning caused by corrosion and erosion. The TCS700 can also
operate shear-wave, rotating ultrasonic probes for detection, and sizing
of tube cracking that may occur at the near drum.
AIR COOLERS
Aluminum-finned carbon steel tubes represent a challenge to the
inspector. The fins have adetrimental effect on remote field (RFT)
making this technique unreliable. The only techniques that work
reliably in this case are magnetic flux leakage (MFL) and IRIS.

MFL is effective for aluminum-finned carbon steel tubes because the flux
leakage field is generally unaffected by the fins. R/D Tech has
improved the MFL technology by developing probes with increased
sensitivity to pitting.

R/D Tech’s digital IRIS is used extensively for air cooler inspection and
as a validation technique for MFL inspections.

Eddy Current Inspection

Electromagnetic Induction
History

By 1820, scientists had discovered that when a current was applied to a

wire a magnetic field was set up. This was proven by accident as many
of the scientific discoveries were Hans Christian Oerstead a Dani
professor had discovered while demonstrating the heat effects of an
electrical current flowing through a wire that a magnetic was present.
(This was seen because there happened to be compass lying near the
wire). This magnetic field was only present while the current flowed
through the wire.

They had discovered how to use electricity to make magnetism and

through reason concluded that somehow magnetism could also be
used to make electricity.

With this reasoning the adventure begins.

Time passed and the mystery was no closer to getting solved, until 1832
Michael Faraday was experimenting with coils and batteries. He noticed
that when he connected one coil to the battery, he could detect an
electrical current in a second coil when it was placed within a close
distance to the first coil, but just an instant. He also noted tat when he
disconnected the battery he got the same results with the second coil,
also only for an instant.

Faraday knew that somehow the two coils were affecting each other.
The #1 coil was “inducing” a current in the #2 Coil, but only when the
power was turned off or on. Could the magnetic field be the coupling
medium between the 2 coils? However since the current flow was
instantaneous, when the power was turned on or off, it could only be,
the "change" in the magnetic that caused the current to flow in the
second coil. Faraday made, different changes in these coils to see the
effect they ha on this discovery.

 Change the number of turns in primary coil

  Change the Physical size of the primary coil

 Change the amount of current in the primary coil

 Change the number of turns in the secondary coil

 Change the physical size of the secondary coil

 Change the spacing between the coils

All of these. changes are referred to as "Variables" and all had an effect
on the current induced in the secondary coil by changing it one way or
the other. Faraday wrote "An instantaneous current in one or the other
direction accompanies every change in the magnetic intensity ....”

Following the success of these trials it was decided that it should be

possible to induce this current by moving permanent magnet towards,
or away from, the coil. With this success it was proven, that "mechanical
energy could be changed to electrical energy."

These amazing principles that connect magnetism with electrical

current, is the base of our entire alternating current power
distribution system in use to this day.

So what does this mean to Eddy Current testing?

Unknown to Faraday this is the effect used in Eddy Current inspection

to cause the eddy currents to flow in the material being inspected, and it
is the effect used to monitor these currents. Almost 100 years of
research passed before it was discovered that these principles could
also be used to detect discontinuities in materials.
Here is a quick time line showing the major players involved with their
discoveries that lead to modern day Eddy Current Inspection.

• 1864 Maxwell: presents his classical dissertation on a dynamic theory

of the electromagnetic field, this includes a set of equations that bear his
name and describe all large-scale electromagnetic phenomena include
the generation and flow of eddy currents in conductors and associated
electromagnetic fields. All the electromagnetic induction effects that are
basic to the eddy current inspection are described in principle in
Maxwell’s equations for particular boundary values for practical
applications.

• 1879 Hughes, using an Eddy current method, detected differences in

electrical conductivity, magnetic permeability, and temperature in
metal. At the time this method was somewhat useless due to the. fact it
was not needed and because more development of the electrical theory
was necessary.

• Calculating the flow of induced current in metals was later developed

by solving Maxwell's equations. These mathematical techniques were
important in the electric power generation and transmission industry,
in induction heating and in the eddy current method of inspection.

• In the mid-1920s an eddy current instrument capable of measuring

wall thickness was developed by Kranz

• 1930-1935 Farrow, pioneered the development of eddy current

systems for the inspection of welded steel tubing that included a
separate primary energizing coil, differential secondary detector coil,
and a dc magnetic-saturating- solenoid coil. The instrumentation
included a balancing network, high-frequency amplifiers, frequency
discriminator-demodulator, low-frequency pulse amplifier, and filters.
These are the same basic elements that are in the modern systems for
eddy current inspection.

• By the early 1940's Forster had developed the eddy current inspection
instrument that is bais of the equipment in use today.
Peter Peregrinus

In 1269 Pierre de Maricourt, more usually known as Petrus Peregrinus

or Peter the Pilgrim, was part of a French army besieging Lucera in
southern Italy. He was in charge of fortifying the camp, laying mines and
constructing machines to hurl stones and fireballs into the besieged city.
While engaged on these activities, he had spare time which he occupied
with an attempt to solve the problem of perpetual motion. He devised a
diagram to show how a wheel might be driven round forever by the
power of magnetic attraction. Excited by his discovery, he wrote a
treatise in the form of a letter on the properties of the lodestone which
he had discovered during his experiments. His letter was given the title
Epistola de Magnete.

The Epistola is a remarkable document. In it Peregrinus was the first to,

assign a position to the poles of a lodestone. He proved that unlike poles
attract, while like poles repel; established by experiments that every
fragment of a lodestone, however small, is a complete magnet, and
determined the position of an object by its magnetic bearing as is done
today in compass surveying. Basing a perpetual machine on the power
of magnetic attraction -although ultimately doomed to failure - showed
remarkable foresight, anticipating the operating principles of the
modern electric motor.

During the next few centuries, various manuscript copies of the Epistola
were made, and today about thirty versions are extant. The first printed
edition was prepared by a physician of Lindau, Achilles Gasser, who had
studied mathematics, astronomy, history and philosophy. It was printed
in Augsburg in 1558. The title-page is illustrated above, with its
woodcut hand coloured border. The work attracted little attention until
William Gilbert mentioned it frequently in his De Magnete of 1600.

Hans Christian Ørsted

Born: August 14, 1777

Birthplace: Rudkobing, Denmark
Died: March 09, 1851
Location of Death: Copenhagen, Denmark

One of the most distinguished scientific discoverers and physicists of

his time, Oersted was born in 1777 at Rudkjobing, on the Danish
island of Langeland, where his father practiced as an apothecary. In
1794, he entered the University of Copenhagen, where he took the
degree of doctor of philosophy in 1799, and soon afterwards became
assistant to the professor of medicine, in which capacity he gave
lectures on chemistry and natural philosophy.

Oersted's great object through life was to make science popular

among all classes, in furtherance of which he wrote numerous works,
contributed scientific papers to the newspapers and magazines of his
own country and Germany, and in addition to his regular prelections
in the university, gave courses of popular scientific lectures to the
public, including ladies. Among the works specially written to promote
the diffusion of scientific knowledge, those best known are Aanden i
Naturen (Copenhagen, 1845), and Natur-loeren's Mechanische
Deel (Copenhagen, 1847), both of which were translated into several
other European languages.

The majority of his more important physical and chemical papers are
contained in Poggendorff’s Annalen, and were written by him in
German or French, both of which he wrote with the same faculty as
his own language. At the close of 1850, a national jubilee was held in
honor of the 50th anniversary of his connection with the University of
Copenhagen -- a festival which he did not long survive, as his death
occurred at Copenhagen on 9th March 1851. A public funeral,
attended by all persons distinguished by rank or learning in the
Danish capital, bore testimony to the respect and esteem with which
he was regarded by his fellow citizens, among whom his memory is
cherished, not merely as one of the greatest scientific benefactors of
his times, but as a man who contributed largely, by his eloquent and
earnest advocacy of liberal principles, to the attainment of the high
degree of constitutional freedom which Denmark now enjoys.
Right Hand Rule
If a conductor is held, in the right hand with the thumb pointing in the
direction of the current, the fingers will point in the direction
of the magnetic field.

Michael Faraday
Born: September 22, 1791, Hampshire
Died: August 25, 1867, Hampton Court Palace
Buried: Highgate Cemetery

Michael Faraday, FRS was an English scientist who contributed to the

fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries
include those of electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and
electrolysis.

English bookbinder who became interested in electricity. He obtained

an assistantship in Davy’s lab, then began to conduct his own
experiments. He wrote a review article on current views about
electricity and magnetism in 1821, for which he reproduced Oersted’s
experiment. He was one of the greatest experimenters ever. Because he
was self trained, however, he had no grasp of mathematics and could
therefore not understand a word of Ampere's papers. In the course of
his experiments, Faraday discovered that a suspended magnet would
revolve around a current bearing wire, leading him to propose that
magnetism was a circular force. He also discovered magnetic optical
rotation, invented the dynamo a device capable of converting electricity
to motion) in 1821, discovered electromagnetic induction in 1831, and
devised the laws of chemical electrodeposition of metals from solutions
in 1857.

Michael Faraday, evidently holding

a bar magnet.
James Clerk Maxwell
Born: June 13, 1831, Edinburgh
Died: November 5, 1879, Cambridge
Books: A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field

Maxwell's major aim in his research on electricity and magnetism was

to produce the mathematical framework underlying Faraday's
experimental results and his ideas on field theory. The four
mathematical equations Maxwell produced are ranked with Sir Isaac
Newton's laws of motion and Albert Einstein's theory of relativity as
the most fundamental contributions to physics.

When Maxwell calculated the speed of electromagnetic waves, he

found that their speed was virtually the same as the speed of light. He
concluded that light was another type of electromagnetic wave.
Maxwell proposed that electromagnetic waves with other
wavelengths should exist as well. When German physicist Heinrich
Hertz produced the first man-made radio waves in 1887 (eight years
after Maxwell's death), Maxwell's electromagnetic theory was fully
confirmed. (Radio waves have longer wavelengths than visible light.)

The later discovery of X-rays was further confirmation of Maxwell's

predictions. (X-rays are a form of electromagnetic radiation with ultra-
short wavelengths.) Twentieth century communication technology
stems largely from Maxwell's work. Radio, television, radar and
satellite communication all have their origins in his electromagnetic
theory.
Alexander Graham Bell using his "induction balance" in an unsuccessful
attempt to find the bullet that would eventually kill President Garfield,
from Harper's Weekly, August 13, 1881. As the doctors struggled to
understand the extent of Garfield's wounds, Bell, inventor of the
telephone, used this machine to try to locate the bullet. When found, the
machine was to send a sound to the attached telephone receiver.
Despite attempts on July 26 and August 1, 1881, Bell could not situate
the bullet.

Alexander Graham Bell's

induction balance
Friedrich Förster

In 1937 during the examination of magnetic properties of metals,

Friedrich Förster discovered the influence of the Earth's magnetic field
on the test coil of the test equipment. He started with the development
of highly sensitive measuring equipment for magnetic fields.
1948 the visionary founded his own company and looked for
opportunities for the implementation of his results from the scientific
work at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute.
His objective: The development of industry-compatible apparatus.
The scientific basis of the electromagnetic test methods was developed
in the 1950s. Dr. Friedrich Förster received the Victor de Forest Award
for this in 1957. The method was published by Robert C. McMaster /
USA in 1959 in the standard work of the non-destructive testing
methods.
1963 the first magnetic field measuring equipment from FOERSTER was
installed in a satellite. Mariner II is researching, amongst other things,
the magnetic field of the planet Venus with this. Further measuring
equipment for space travel followed later, e.g. for the precise alignment
of the ROSAT ROentgen SATellite (X-ray observatory). There is even a
FOERSTER probe on the moon. Prof. Friedrich Förster received the
highest distinction of NASA in 1992 for his work.