Electromagnetic Induction of Ultrasonic Waves: Emat, Emus, Emar
Electromagnetic Induction of Ultrasonic Waves: Emat, Emus, Emar
Electromagnetic Induction of Ultrasonic Waves: Emat, Emus, Emar
G. Alers
EMAT Consulting, San Luis Obispo, CA
current generates or detects shear horizontal (SH) waves whose wavelengths are twice the width of the
individual magnets.
These transducers operate on any conducting material and are known by the acronym EMAT
(Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducer) or Electromagnetic Ultrasonic Sensor (EMUS). The acronym
EMAR (Electromagnetic Acoustic Resonator) applies to the case of electromagnetic excitation or detection
of resonant mechanical vibrations in an object. In magnetic materials, a separate transduction mechanism
that results from magnetostriction in the material may dominate the ultrasonic wave generation and
detection process to make a more efficient transducer. This type of device has been referred to as a MUT –
an acronym for Magnetostrictive Ultrasonic Transducer. A detailed theoretical analysis of this class of
transducer can be found in recently published books1,2. In these treatments, the sensitivity is often
expressed by a transfer impedance between a transmitter and receiver pair of devices that communicate via
the acoustic wave that passes between them . The transfer impedance is the voltage output at the receiver
coil’s terminals divided by the current being driven through the transmitter’s coil. Thus, its units are ohms.
Under good conditions (magnetic fields of the order of 5,000 gauss and many turns in the EMAT coils), the
output voltage can be as large as a millivolt when the transmitter current is 100 amperes – a transfer
impedance of 10 microhms. Achieving these levels of current in the transmitter coil and amplifying the
receiver voltages with a minimum of noise requires careful electronic design procedures but it can be done
with commercially available instrumentation.
Results: The following paragraphs give specific examples of the application of electromagnetic
transducers to inspection problems that conventional piezoelectric transducers find difficult to solve. They
have been divided into sections that exploit particular advantages of noncontact ultrasonics. Additional
information can be found in review articles in technical journals3 and books4.
A. Ultrasonic Inspections Without a Coupling Medium:
A1. Inspection of Buried Gas Pipelines. Gas pipelines are, in reality, very long steel pressure
vessels buried in the ground. Thus, they are subject to corrosion that can take the form of pitted areas or
stress corrosion cracks – either of which can jeopardize the safety of the entire pipeline. The obvious
method of inspecting the lines for such damage is with instrumented robots that can be driven along the
pipeline by the flow of the gas. Conventional ultrasonic techniques that use waves propagating in a
circumferential direction are well suited to detecting and sizing longitudinal stress corrosion cracks but
getting the waves in and out of the pipe wall at high speed without a coupling medium has proven difficult.
EMATs immediately overcome this coupling problem and can interrogate the pipe wall with Lamb waves
(at low frequencies) or angle beam shear waves (at higher frequencies). The basic technology is described
in the original patent 4,092,868 and early publications5, 6. Recent development activities with this technique
have overcome the mechanical problems associated with maintaining the small air gap between the EMAT
coil and the pipe wall as well as with supporting the permanent magnets that supply the required magnetic
fields. Still remaining is the general problem of detecting and sizing stress corrosion cracks with ultrasonic
waves.
A2. On-line Measurement of the Wall Thickness of Seamless Steel Tubing . Seamless tubing is
manufactured by forcing a piercing tool through a billet at very high temperature. Because any wobble in
the tool can produce variations in the wall thickness, it is important to monitor the thickness dimension as
soon as possible after the piercing operation in order to keep thin spots out of the final product line.
Conventional ultrasonic thickness gages can only spot-check the thickness after the tubing has cooled to
near room temperature. By using EMAT coils fabricated from heat and wear resistant materials and small
pulsed electromagnets that needed no cooling, it was possible to assemble a compact EMAT sensor probe
on wheels that could be brought in contact with the pipe as it passed through an inspection station at a
production mill speed of 180 ft./min (0.9 m/sec). Eight such probes distributed around the pipe’s
circumference produced a continuous read-out of thicknesses along eight axial paths with a resolution of
approximately 1/8” (3 mm) between readings. Computer based signal processing and display software
presented the mill operator with a thickness vs position map of the pipe joint within seconds after the pipe
had passed through the inspection station. Any data points that exceeded preset limits for the thickness
dimension set off an alarm system and directed the pipe to an off-line location for manual verification of the
results found by the EMAT system. More details on the operation of this system can be found in
elsewhere4.
A3. Monitoring of the Billet Temperature During Continuous Casting of Steel. Continuous casting
of steel is accomplished in modern steel mills by allowing the molten metal to flow from the furnace
through a cooled tube onto a bed of rollers. A solid layer of steel is formed at the tube-to-steel interface and
this acts as a mold for the hot metal as it emerges from the tube. Inside this “mold”, the steel remains
molten for a considerable time and it is very important to monitor the location of the liquid-solid interface
to prevent a break-out of the liquid from the “mold”. Because of the discontinuity in acoustic impedance at
the liquid-solid interface, it is not difficult to measure the thickness of the solid layer with an ultrasonic
thickness gage if the gage can withstand surface temperatures approaching 1200 C. A ceramic encased
EMAT coil and magnet similar to that described in US Patent 4,777,824 was assembled and demonstrated
in a continuous casting mill in 19887,8.
A4. Dry Inspection of Automotive Air Bag Inflators. Universal installation of air bags in
automobiles has produced a need for mass production of small pyrotechnic devices to inflate the air bag
during a collision. In some designs, mating parts of the inflator device must be welded together in a dry
environment to avoid contaminating the pyrotechnic chemicals. Subsequent inspection of the weld by
ultrasonic techniques must also be performed without contact with water. Thus, EMAT techniques are
required. Special EMAT coils shaped to match the contour of the welded joint were placed under small
permanent magnets to generate and detect bulk shear waves that propagated normal to the welded joint
surface. In this configuration, the joint was inspected by conventional pulse-echo signal processing
techniques. A secondary advantage derived from the use of couplant-free EMATs was that the parts could
be moved rapidly past the EMAT to yield a high throughput of 100% inspected parts.
A5. Rapid Inspection of Mass Produced Parts with Irregular Shapes. In the production of
munitions, hollow projectiles with an ogive nose, grooved sides and a flat bottom must be inspected for
cracks and internal defects that could cause premature detonation during manufacture or during firing from
a gun on the battlefield. Angle beam shear wave inspection of the projectile walls with an array of
conventional piezoelectric transducers deployed around the ID and OD surfaces requires immersion of the
projectile in a water bath and precision alignment of each and every transducer in a jig of considerable
mechanical complexity. By using meander wound EMAT coils pressed lightly against the surface and by
placing the entire projectile in a general magnetic field, angle beam shear waves were directed around the
circumference and into the interior corners where cracking could have serious consequences. Thus, the
need for precision jigs to support the transducers were eliminated and the expense of a large array of
individual piezoelectric elements was replaced by a collection of less expensive meander coils.
Furthermore, the assembly line for the projectiles did not have to include special drying stations because the
inspection was performed on dry surfaces. Additional information on this particular ultrasonic inspection
method can be found in the US patent 4,184,374 entitled “Ultrasonic Inspection of a Cylindrical Object”.
A6. Inspection of Electron Beam Welds Inside a Vacuum Chamber. Gas turbine engine parts made
with very special alloys often need to be welded by electron beam or laser techniques under vacuum
conditions to avoid contamination of the weld by an atmosphere. Conventional ultrasonic inspection of the
completed weld required removal of the part from the vacuum chamber, immersing it in a water bath and
scanning it with careful aligned piezoelectric transducer probes. By using high frequency meander coils
curved to focus the ultrasonic wave fronts into the weld line, an angle beam shear wave inspection was
performed by the pulse-echo technique using EMATs. Since the magnetic field required by the EMATs
would disturb the electron beam, the ultrasonic inspection was performed after moving the part in the
vacuum chamber away from the welding position to a near-by station where it could be rotated past a fixed
EMAT probe. This probe used a pulsed electromagnet for its magnetic field in order to minimize any
retained magnetization in the part if it had to be moved back to the electron beam for a repair weld. In the
production line version of this inspection system, four individual parts could be welded and inspected with
one pump-down of the chamber. By using focusing meander coils at 7 MHz, a C-scan of the weld line was
able to display a 0.03” (0.75 mm) diameter flat bottom hole as a circle with 0.004” (0.1 mm) pixel
resolution. Additional information on the use of EMAT generated angle-beam shear waves for weld
inspection can be found in ref. 9