Eddy Current testing is an important component of Non-destructive testing techniques. By working with the principles of electricity and magnetism this technique can be utillized for effective surface/near-surface crack detection.
The instrument comprises of various hardware components interfaced with a PC. The main modules are:
Excitation Source
ECT Probe
Demodulation Circuitry
Signal Acquisition
Position Sensing
Graphical User Interface over PC
The coil is escited using a constant current AC soucrce. The magnetic fields produced by the coil induce eddy currents in the test material. In case a crack or void is present, there will be a change in impedance of the coil. This change is sensed using the hardware mentioned above and consequently translated into useful data which can be displayed on the PC for the end-user to observe.
The project was completed in May of 2014. All the circuits were designed and fabricated in-house. It went on to win first place in the IBA INVENT 2014