A Novel Eddy Current Method for Defect Detection Immune to Lift-Off

Eddy current (EC) sensors have been applied to detect defects for many years. Since both defects and the lift-off variation will lead to measurement signal fluctuation, it is necessary to distinguish the defect response and lift-off variation response. In this work, a novel EC method is proposed for defect detection immune to lift-off via a triple-coil structure. Firstly, a simplified theoretical model is built to investigate the relationship between the lift-off and the inductance variation. It is found the lift-off is proportional to the logarithm of inductance variation in real part under high frequency. In terms of sensor design, the triple-coil sensor consists of two pairs of transmitting–receiving coils, from which one of the receiving coils is larger than the other one. With such sensor structure, the small-size coil aims to detect the defect, while the large-size coil aims to calibrate lift-off. The proposed method is verified by experiments with the sensor scanning over a Titanium specimen with defects of different sizes. The results indicate the proposed method can achieve efficient and precise defect detection immune to lift-off.