Sensitivity of metal detectors to spheroidal targets

The sensitivity of magnetic metal detectors to prolate or oblate spheroidal targets depends both on the semiaxis ratio and on the orientation of the spheroid polar axis relative to the local magnetic field. A spherical target produces null response only if the generator and detector coil magnetic fields are orthogonal, but the spheroid possesses a null direction for a large range of magnetic field orientations. A spheroid can therefore be made undetectable by rotating it into a particular orientation. The existence of such blind-position angles is investigated theoretically in detail and families of curves are given to illustrate them in a particular case.