Finite element analysis of coupled electromagnetic acoustic systems

Electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs) are used for nondestructive testing of electric conductive materials. In this paper, the authors introduce an efficient numerical calculation scheme, based on the finite element method, which is capable of simulating both the transmission and detection of ultrasonic waves by EMATs. Therefore, the generation of waves by electromagnetic forces (transmitting case), as well as the induced voltage resulting from the magnetic field of eddy currents, which are generated by the waves in a constant magnetic field, can be calculated. 2D computer simulations and measured data obtained with a pair of matched plate wave EMATs are presented to show the applicability of the developed calculation scheme.