A Permeability-Measuring Magnetic Flux Leakage Method for Inner Surface Crack in Thick-Walled Steel Pipe

摘要

It is difficult for traditional magnetic flux leakage (MFL) methods to detect inner surface cracks of thick-walled steel pipe or plate due to magnetic shielding of the wall and strong magnetic background noise, and for eddy current testing (ECT) as well due to its skin effect. On the basis of the nonlinear magnetic permeability of ferromagnetic materials, a new non-destructive testing method (NDT) permeability-measuring magnetic flux leakage (P-MFL) is proposed, in which the magnetization is perpendicular to the inner surface crack, and the surface layer permeability distortion caused by magnetic field distortion is measured by differential pick-up coils. Afterwards, its detection mechanism is presented and analyzed, and its feasibility is verified by simulations and experiments. Finally, some application cases for steel pipe are also realized effectively. Meanwhile, its testing characteristics for cracks are given and effects of crack size, specimen thickness, scanning paths to testing signal amplitude are briefly analyzed. Finally, the proposed P-MFL method compared to traditional MFL method is discussed in detail.