ADVANCED COMPUTATIONAL MODELS FOR ELECTROMAGNETIC NONDESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION VIA BOUNDARY INTEGRAL EQUATIONS

THE USE OF EDDY CURRENTS TO DETECT SURFACE-BREAKING DEFECTS IS WELL ESTABLISHED, AND MUCH KNOWLEDGE HAS BEEN BUILT UP IN ANALYZING THESE SIGNALS. HOWEVER, THE THEORETICAL BASIS FOR THIS TECHNIQUE IS UNDER-UTILIZED OR IGNORED. THE ELECTROMAGNETIC EQUATIONS TO BE SOLVED ARE COMPLEX, AS REALISTIC DETAILS ARE ADDED, SO THAT REAL-LIFE SITUATION IS MATCHED TO A REASONABLE DEGREE. A MODEL CAPABLE OF ACCURATELY MATCHING EXPERIMENTAL EDDY CURRENT RESULTS IS IMPORTANT AND COULD BE A KEY TO UNDERSTANDING THE DETECTED SIGNAL IN TERMS OF THE UNDERLYING FLAW GEOMETRY. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM ADDRESSED CONCERNS THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN ADVANCED COMPUTATIONAL MODEL FOR ELECTROMAGNETIC NONDESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION (NDE). THE MODEL ALLOWS ONE TO EFFICIENTLY AND RELIABLY CALULATE THE INTERACTION BETWEEN A PROBE AND A FLAW THAT IS LOCATED NEAR THE EDGES AND CORNERS OF A WORKPIECE, AS WELL AS TO MODEL ARRAYS OF PROBES. THE PROJECT INTEGRATES RECENT RESEARCH IN THE AREAS OF VOLUME-INTEGRAL AND BOUNDARY-INTEGRAL EQUATIONS IN COMPUTATIONAL ELECTROMAGNETICS, INCLUDING THE USE OF VECTOR BOUNDARY ELEMENTS AND WHITNEY FORMS.