Axial magnetic field sensing for pulsed magnetic flux leakage hairline crack detection and quantification

The Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) testing method is a well-established branch of electromagnetic non-destructive testing technology extensively used to observe, analyze and estimate the level of imperfections (cracks, corrosions, pits, dents, etc.) affecting the quality of ferromagnetic steel structures. However the conventional MFL (DCMFL) method are not capable of estimating the defect sizes and orientation, hence an additional transducer is required to provide the extra information needed. This paper takes the detection and quantification of tangentially oriented rectangular surface and far-surface hairline cracks as the research objective. It uses an optimized pulsed magnetic flux leakage probe system to establish the location and geometries of such cracks. The results gathered from the approach show that data using the axial (Bx) field component can provide detailed locational information about hairline cracks especially the shape, size and orientation when positioned perpendicular to the applied field