Characterization of an eddy-current-based system for nondestructive testing

A low-cost probe for nondestructive testing of conductive materials was set up and tested. It is based on the measurement of the magnetic field produced by eddy currents (ECs) and perturbed by the presence of cracks. The magnetic sensor used, characterized by the authors in a previous work, gives an output that, suitably processed, allow both the amplitude and phase of the magnetic field to be measured. The preliminary tests reported confirm the suitability of the proposed probe for detecting cracks and correctly identifying their direction and depths.