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It is usually considered that the wavelength of guided waves propagating in plates is equal to the double spacing interval of the meander-line coil of electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs). However, the actual value of the wavelength might deviate from the double spacing. This paper takes Shear Horizontal (SH) waves for instance to study the relationship between the wavelength deviation and the parameters of EMATs. It is shown that the wavelength deviation occurs when the operating point of EMATs does not locate on the dispersion curves of a certain SH mode. A wavelength measurement method is proposed to evaluate the deviation by the time-frequency analysis of detected wave signals. Experiments are set up to study the phenomenon of wavelength deviation and verify the validity of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, finite element method (FEM) is still the mainstream tool in a range of complex science and engineering applications, including the analysis of structures, heat, fluid, and electromagnetics. However, FEM becomes computationally very intensive when the number of physics equations grows and the mesh is refined. In this paper, we investigated the parallel computing techniques in the nonlinear magnetostatic field solution of an axisymmetrical actuator with permanent magnet by proposing a generalized black-box transmission line method (BB-TLM). A novel black-box circuit model was built to represent complex FEM element data. By means of the transmission line model, each element is isolated and then a series of parallel procedures is considered during the solution stages. The magnetic field distribution and magnetic force of the studied actuator are calculated by the proposed method and the simulation results are compared with COMSOL. Compared with the conventional N-R method, the generalized BB-TLM algorithm greatly reduces the computation time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two mass erosion mechanisms or mass loss modes for electrodes during the repetitive arcing processes should be responsible for the failure of electromagnetic relays, and there are evaporation erosion and sputter erosion. Of these two, the evaporation erosion is believed to be the main failure mechanism for the electrodes used in low-current relays. Unfortunately, there is still no straight-forward model to predict the characteristics of the evaporation process on the electrodes. In this paper, heat transfer and fluid dynamics in the molten pool in silver contacts are coupled with the gas dynamics in the vicinity of arc spot to determine the evaporation rate due to static arc. The influences of input parameters, such as arc current and material properties, on the evaporation rate are analyzed. Of all those parameters, boiling point and thermal conductivity of the electrode are found to be the most significant influences on the evaporation rate. The transfer direction of mass due to electrode evaporation is discussed on the assumption of zero net material loss, and it is found to be directly related to the current and heat flux from the arc to the electrodes. The method used in this paper to evaluate the evaporation erosion characteristics can serve for strategies to alleviate evaporation erosion for relay electrodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The elastic waves generated by traditional meander- line coil electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs) propagate in two directions, overlapping the echo signals from defects with the same distances, and the defect echo signal is hard to distinguish from the edge-reflected signal when the EMATs are near the edge of a specimen. In this paper, a unidirectional EMAT with two meander-line coils is proposed. A finite element model is used to simulate the directivity of the Rayleigh and shear vertical waves generated by these EMATs. Six transducers are fabricated using the printed circuit technique. The unidirectional Rayleigh wave and shear vertical wave are tested, and the results agree well with the simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electromagnetic ultrasonic (EMU) Lamb waves excited by electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs) possess many advantages in NDT. However, their characteristic multi-modes and dispersion are disadvantageous for inspection and restrict further improvements in their real applications. By deducing the excitation equation of EMU Lamb waves, the primary design parameters of EMATs and the characteristic equation of Lamb waves are combined, and excitation curves based on the excitation equation are plotted to aid the design of EMATs. The excitation characteristic of EMU Lamb waves on different thickness of plates is analyzed according to the excitation curves. The influence of multi-modes of EMU Lamb waves is minimized by choosing reasonable operating points and operating zones to excite a single-mode Lamb wave or multi-mode Lamb waves with identical or approximate propagation velocities. The influence of dispersion is minimized by searching corresponding points whose slope of group velocity tends to zero. The validity of the proposed method is verified by experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Surface wave electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs) are becoming preferred sensors of automatic inspection systems for the detection of surface-layer defects in hostile environments. Aiming at establishing a 3-D model for meander-line-coil surface wave EMATs operating on the Lorentz principle, a novel modeling method is proposed by combining numerical calculations and analytical solutions with special attention to the influence of the dynamic magnetic field. Simulation and analysis find that the frequency of the surface waves due to the dynamic magnetic field is twice that due to the static magnetic field; the excitation of surface waves with two frequencies can effectively improve the sensitivity of EMATs to flaws; and the force due to the dynamic magnetic field generates surface waves more efficiently than that due to the static one when the excitation current exceeds 528.9A. The accuracy of the established model is verified by experiment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]