• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.198-203
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• 2010

In this paper, study on the mode characteristics analysis of the SH-EMAT (shear horizontal, electromagnetic acoustic transducer) waves for evaluating the thickness reduction in plates such as corrosion and friction is presented. Noncontact methods for ultrasonic wave generation and detection have been a great concern and highly demanded due to their capability of wave generation and reception on surface of high temperature or on rough surface. Mode identification of the SH-EMAT wave is carried out in an aluminum plate with thinning defects using time frequency analysis method such as wavelet transform, compared with theoretically calculated group velocity dispersion curve. The changes of various wave features such as the amplitude and the time-of-flight have been observed and the correlations with the thickness reduction have been investigated. Firstly, experiments have been conducted to confirm that it is possible to selectively generate and receive specific desired SH modes. These modes have then been analyzed to select the parameters that are sensitive to the thickness change. The results show that the mode cutoff and the time-of-flight changes are feasible as key parameters to evaluate the thickness reduction.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 2004

It is possible to detect flaws in pipelines without interruption using all EMAT transducer because it is a non-contact transducer which can transmit ultrasonic waves into specimens without couplant. And it ran easily generate guided waves desired in each specific problem by altering the design of coil and magnet. In the present work, EMAT systems have been fabricated to generate surface waves, and selectively the plate wave of $A_1\;or\;S_1$ mode. The surface wave of 1.5MHz showed a good signal-to-noise ratio without distortion in its propagation along a pipeline, while the $S_1$ mode of 800kHz and the $A_1$ mode of 940kHz were distorted according to their dispersive properties. The wider the excitation pulse becomes, the better the mode selectivity of the plate waves becomes. A pipe of 256mm inner diameter and 5.5m thickness with 5 flaws was used for comparing the flaw detectability among the modes under consideration.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.74-78
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• 2010

In this paper, a non-contact method of evaluating the thickness reduction in an aluminum sheet caused by corrosion and friction using SH-EMAT (shear horizontal, electromagnetic acoustic transducer) is described. Since this method is based on the measurement of the time-of-flight and amplitude change of guided waves caused from the thickness reduction, it provides information on the thinning defects. Information was obtained on the changes of the various wave features, such as their time-of-flight and amplitude, and their correlations with the thickness reduction were investigated. The interesting features in the dispersive behavior of selected guided modes were used for the detection of thinning defects. The measurements of these features using SH waves were performed on aluminum specimens with regions thinned by 7.2% to 29.5% of the total thickness. It is shown that the time-of-flight measurement provides an estimation of the thickness reduction and length of the thinning defects.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.25-31
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• 1994

A system for EMAT, which generates ultrasound by electro-magnectic forces and performs nondestructive testing in noncontact, was established. By linking it with a 3 axis scanning system and a data acquisition and processing system the automation of EMAT testing was attempted. A EMAT sensor was fabricated and the directivity pattern of it was measured. To be suitable automation, it has a transmitter and a receiver in one case and the main beam direction of it can be controlled by the frequency of driving signal. A program which controls the EMAT system, the 3 axis scanner and the data acquisition and processing system was developed. It also processes acquired data and displays the processing results. IBM-PC/AT compatible PC was used as main controller and the stratage of the program is emulation of real devices on the PC monitor. To provide the performance of the established EMAT system, two aluminium blocks containing artificial flaws and a welded aluminium block were tested. The result of the tests were satisfactory.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.277-282
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• 2014

Recently, much attention has been paid to nonlinear ultrasonic technology as a potential tool to assess hidden damages that cannot be detected by conventional ultrasonic testing. One nonlinear ultrasonic technique is measurement of the resonance frequency shift, which is based on the hysteresis of the material elasticity. Sophisticated measurement of resonance frequency is required, because the change in resonance frequency is usually quite small. In this investigation, the nonlinear electromagnetic acoustic resonance (NEMAR) method was employed. The NEMAR method uses noncontact electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs) in order to minimize the effect of the transducer on the frequency response of the object. Aluminum plate specimens that underwent three point bending fatigue were tested with a shear wave EMAT. The hysteretic nonlinear parameter ${\alpha}$, a key indicator of damage, was calculated from the resonance frequency shift at several levels of input voltage. The hysteretic nonlinear parameter of a damaged sample was compared to that of an intact one, showing a difference in the values.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.36-41
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• 2011

If gas is leaking out of gas pipelines, it could cause a huge explosion. Accordingly, it is important to ensure the integrity of gas pipelines. Traditionally, over the years, gas-operating companies have used the ILI system, which is based on axial magnetic flux leakage (MFL), to inspect the gas pipelines. Relatively, there is a low probability of detection (POD) for the axial defects with the axial MFL-based ILI. To prevent the buried pipeline from corrosion, it requires a protective coating. In addition to the potential damage to the coating by environmental factors and external forces, there could be defects on the damaged coating area. Thus, it is essential that nondestructive evaluation methods for detecting axial defects (axial cracks, axial groove) and damaged coating be developed. In this study, an electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) sensor was designed and fabricated for detecting axial defects and coating disbondment. In order to validate the performances of the developed EMAT sensor, experiments were performed with specimens from axial cracks, axial grooves, and coating disbondment. The experimental results showed that the developed EMAT sensor could detect not only the axial cracks (minimum 5% depth of wall thickness) and axial grooves (minimum 10% depth of wall thickness), but also the coating disbondment.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.255-261
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• 2003

It is advantageous to use NDE methods to assess the mechanical properties of materials since the conventional method is time-consuming and sometimes requires cutting of sample from the component. The NDE parameters such as ultrasonic velocity and attenuation, electric resistivity, and magnetic coercive force and remanance have been utilized to evaluate changes of material properties due to heat treatment condition. It has been found that changes of materials properties under quenched and tempered/PWHT treatments could not be detected using EMAT and Electrical resistivity methods. However, victors hardness and magnetic hysteresis loop decreased with heat treatment procedures. These results were obtained using 3Cr-lMo-0.25V steel. The magnetic parameters were found to be most sensitive to changes of material properties.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.41-46
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• 2012

As the development of MEMS/NEMS structure and application technology the demand for an assessment of the mechanical properties have increased. The mechanical properties are mainly evaluated by using tensile test or ultrasonic wave measurement. However, the new technology have been developed such as nano-indentation, guided wave method because they have a limitation in case of a thin plate and thin film. In the study, the guided wave velocities are measured by electromagnetic-acoustic transducer(EMAT), the material properties of thin metallic foils are obtained using optimization process of the theoretical and experimental group velocity of guided wave. The Young's modulus obtained by the optimization process(201.6 GPa), nano-indentation(207.0 GPa) and literature value(203.7 GPa) of a $50{\mu}m$ thick nickel thin plate shows good agreement within 3%.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.83-92
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• 2005

An electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) is a unique probe that does not require a couplant or gel and also can usually generate or detect an ultrasonic wave into specimens across a small gap. It, therefore can be applied in a noncontact mode with a high degree of reproducibility. Especially stiffness of composites depends on layup sequence of CFRP(carbon fiber reinforced plastics) laminates. It is very important to evaluate the layup errors in prepreg laminates. A nondestructive technique can therefore serve as a useful measurement for detecting layup errors. This shear wave for detecting the presence of the errors is very sensitive. A decomposition model has been used in the interpretation and prediction of test results. Test results have been com pared with model data. It is found that the high probability shows between tests and the model utilized in characterizing cured layups of the laminates. Also a C-scan method was used for detecting layup of the laminates because of extracting fiber orientation information from the ultrasonic reflection caused by structural imperfections in the laminates. Therefore, it was found that interface C-scan images show the fiber orientation information by using two-dimensional fast Fourier transform (2-D FFT).