A new surface transducer for generating and detecting magnetic field transients in ferromagnetics

Abstract

A new surface transducer is described for generating and detecting magnetic field transients or magnetization discontinuities in ferromagnetic materials [8]. The sensing is based on searching for transients of the magnetic potentials which would be likely to occur on the surface of the specimen. A coil core of high-frequency ferrite is used for this. The sensor theory presented shows the coaxial geometry of the coil core to be that which is more practicable for limiting detection to a compact volume of the specimen to be analyzed. The fundamental noise and disturbance analyses performed show adequate margins for wideband noise and external stray field disturbances. The transducer electronics for generating the varying external magnetic field in the specimen and for detecting the occurring field transients are described with a view to the optimization of the electrical circuits, and the resulting specifications are discussed. The surface transducer constructed is widely applicable for studying the magnetization characteristics of different ferromagnetics nondestructively in conjunction with stochastic-ergodic analyzers such as a pulse-height analyzer or a digital correlator through a punch-tape recorder or in on-line connection with a computer [7].