Development of a Cone-Shaped Pulsed Eddy Current Sensor

Compared with the conventional eddy current, pulsed eddy current (PEC) technology has the characteristic of abundant components in the frequency domain, which is a significant technological advancement. Improvements in the production and performance of PEC sensors are necessary for nondestructive testing. Sensor configuration parameters have significant influence on the development of PEC system. In this study, through finite element simulation and experimental investigation, different optimization methods for PEC sensors are compared and studied. According to the eddy current detection principle, a two-dimensional finite element simulation model was established to study the influence of the shape and size parameters of cone-shaped PEC sensors. Then a cone-shaped PEC sensor was optimized by the orthogonal methodology and the response surface methodology, respectively. To compare the effectiveness of the optimization methods, two optimized sensors were fabricated. It was demonstrated that the combination of finite element method and response surface methodology was superior for improving the detection performance of the PEC sensor compared with the orthogonal methodology. The result also indicated that the developed cone-shaped PEC sensor had a stronger defect detection capability than cylindrical-shaped PEC sensors. The proposed optimization design method provides a feasible reference method for the design of PEC sensors and corresponding parameters.