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Fossil fuel power plants are complex systems containing multiple components that require periodic health monitoring. Failures in these systems can lead to increased downtime for the plant, reduction of power, and significant cost for repairs. Inspections of the plant’s superheater tubes are typically manual, laborious, and extremely time-consuming. This is due to their small diameter size (between 1.3 and 7.6 cm) and the coiled structure of the tubing. In addition, the tubes are often stacked close to each other, limiting access for external inspection. This paper presents the development and testing of an electrically powered pipe crawler that can navigate inside 5 cm diameter tubes and provide an assessment of their health. The crawler utilizes peristaltic motion within the tubes via interconnected modules for gripping and extending. The modular nature of the system allows it to traverse through straight sections and multiple 90° and 180° bends. Additional modules in the system include an ultrasonic sensor for tube thickness measurements, as well as environmental sensors, a light detecting and ranging (LiDAR) sensor, and camera. These modules utilize a gear system that allows for 360° rotation and provides a means to inspect the entire internal circumference of the tubes.

Magnetoelectric coefficient values of above 5 and 2 V cm-1 Oe-1 in 20 nm CoFe2O4-BaTiO3 and NiFe2O4-BaTiO3 core-shell magnetoelectric nanoparticles were demonstrated. These colossal values, compared to 0.1 V cm-1 Oe-1 commonly reported for the 0-3 system, are attributed to (i) the heterostructural lattice-matched interface between the magnetostrictive core and the piezoelectric shell, confirmed through transmission electron microscopy, and (ii) in situ scanning tunneling microscopy nanoprobe-based ME characterization. The nanoprobe technique allows measurements of the ME effect at a single-nanoparticle level which avoids the charge leakage problem of traditional powder form measurements. The difference in the frequency dependence of the ME value between the two material systems is owed to the Ni-ferrite cores becoming superparamagnetic in the near-dc frequency range. The availability of novel nanostructures with colossal ME values promises to unlock many new applications ranging from energy-efficient information processing to nanomedicine and brain-machine interfaces.

Fossil fuel power plants are complex systems containing multiple components that create extreme environments for the purpose of extracting usable energy. Failures in the system can lead to increased down time for the plant, reduction of power and significant cost for repairs. In the past, inspections and maintenance of the plant's superheater tubes has been predominantly manual, laborious, and extremely time consuming. This is due to the pipe's small diameter size (between 1.3 and 7.6 cm) and the coiled structure of the tubing. In addition, the tubes are often stacked close to each other, limiting access for external inspection. Detection of pipe degradation, such as increased levels of corrosion, creep, and the formation of micro-cracks is possible using standard non-destructive evaluation (NDE) methods, including ultrasonic, radiography and electromagnetic methods. However, when the access to the sub-systems is limited or the configuration of the structure is prohibitive, alternative methods are needed for deploying the NDE tools. This research effort considers a novel robotic inspection system for the evaluation of small pipes found in typical boiler superheaters that have limited access. The pipe crawler system is an internal inspection device that can potentially navigate through the entire pipe length using linear actuators to grip the walls and inch along the pipe. The modular nature of the system allows it to traverse through straight sections and multiple 90-degree and 180-degree bends. The crawler is also capable of providing visual inspections, ultrasonic thickness measurements, and generating inner diameter surface maps using LiDAR (light detection and ranging). Ultimately, the development of this robotic inspection tool can provide information regarding the structural integrity of key pipeline components in fossil fuel power plants that are not easily accessible

Nuclear waste sites across the United States and other countries store, transfer and vitrify nuclear waste. These sites often require transfer pipelines for high and low level radioactive wastes in the form of solids/slurries, fluids including chemicals. Since, these pipelines deal with harmful nuclear wastes, structural health monitoring is of utmost importance. Pipelines are continuously monitored to enhance the safety of the people and environment around the facilities. Monitoring may involve leak, crack detection and wear (in the form of corrosion or thinning). Current research builds on author's previous work on sensors for erosion and thermal monitoring in pipes and plates [1, 2, and 3]. Present work involves a) validation and monitoring of a novel advanced Fiber Optic Sensor System to detect cracks and leaks in carbon steel pipes and b) the use of Ultrasonic (UT) sensors to detect thinning in pipe sections due to erosion-corrosion using small coupons. The fiber optic sensors developed by CEL [4], are used in conducting engineering scale testing on an in-house designed and assembled erosion pipe flow loop. The loop consists of 2 and 3 inch straight and elbow sections of carbon steel replicating the pipelines at the sites. Three fiber optic sensors are placed at critical locations around the loop. The equipment also includes a communication box and a laptop device for data acquisition. The sensor system uses a combination of fiber optic and acoustic technologies to accurately identify the location of a pipeline leak or crack. Sensors capture the changes in pressure caused by the fluid/slurry flowing through the loop. A “zone” is defined as the distance between any two sensor points. When any two sensors simultaneously detect a leak, a determination can be made as to how far from each sensor the activity is occurring and “zero in” on the event. A number of zones may be linked together to manage vast expanses of pipeline. Sensors provide instantaneous event data to the hardware (the interrogator), and the interrogator may be located great distances from the actual pipeline in secure, environmentally protected areas. Multiple Interrogators may be linked together that are simultaneously streaming real-time data to the command and control software. Event notifications may then be managed from the customer's control room, or immediately “pushed” to a variety of mobile devices to alert personnel of the situation [5]. Additionally, Ultrasonic (UT) sensors are used for thickness measurements in pipes. The objective is to measure the wear in pipelines due to erosion-corrosion using small scale erosion coupons. These erosion coupons are made of carbon steel with ½ inch in diameter and 1 inch height. The method involves insertion of the coupons into holes drilled in the pipe sections of the erosion loop. This process ensures that the coupons are in contact with the flow stream and hence eroded in a minute scale over a period of time. The coupons have a slot for insertion of the sensors to measure the thickness in real-time when needed. Upon successful testing of the coupon and sensors, the method can be used to predict the erosion rates and hence the remaining useful life of the pipe sections without having to replace them unnecessarily. Hence, the present research conducts structural health monitoring of carbon steel pipes using fiber optic and UT sensors. The sensors have been validated and verified for their potential future deployment in the nuclear waste sites.

Early detection of developing structural cracks is extremely important in improving safety and reducing maintenance costs in structural, aerospace, chemical, petrochemical, gas, and oil industries. Nonlinear structural health monitoring methods, such as wave modulation spectroscopy (NWMS), can detect the cracks in their early stages of development. Such methods usually rely on the combination of a high and a low-frequency, vibro-acoustic, excitation for defect detection. However, a priori knowledge of the characteristics of the crack is required for selection of the appropriate frequency combination. In this study, the Comprehensive Heterodyne Effect Based Inspection (CHEBI) method is proposed to address this issue. The CHEBI method applies ascending and descending broadband frequency sweeps simultaneously to study the response of the structure in wide ranges of frequencies in the time-frequency domain. Therefore, it eliminates the need for multiple experimental tests to find appropriate combinations of the high and the low-frequency components. The proposed method detected cracks from 1 mm to 25 mm in length on a dog-bone shaped aluminum specimen. These results confirm that the CHEBI can be successfully applied for detection of cracks with varying severities without the need for adjustment of the excitation frequencies.

Storage tanks and pipelines are used at nuclear waste sites across the Department of Energy (DOE) complex to store and transfer nuclear wastes. One of the significant aspects in such sites is monitoring the structural integrity of the waste transfer pipelines and the storage tanks. Literature indicates that the industry standard method of thickness measurements using ultrasonic sensors is mainly through manual inspections. As such, this procedure is expensive and exhaustive for nuclear applications. Hence, in this research, the authors assess a wave guided ultrasonic sensor system for erosion-corrosion (thickness change) detection in waste transfer pipelines at Hanford nuclear waste site. This ultrasonic transducer (UT) sensor system (from Permasense, a UK based manufacturer [2]) has the advantage of real-time remote monitoring. It is an integrated wireless sensor network system which uses a patented technology for the acoustic wave propagation and has proven applications in the oil and gas industries [3]. This UT sensor system meets the requirement of providing the actual thickness measurement in pipes, is capable for 2 inch pipes and elbows, and is customized for mounting with a mechanical clamping system. The sensors are also capable of operating at high temperatures up to 600°C (1100°F). This is due to their patented waveguide technology that holds the sensor head (containing ultrasonic transducers, electronics, and battery) away from the hot metal surface. The sensor's measurements are transmitted wirelessly back to a gateway (wireless access point) mounted near the main unit. Since there is no cost associated with measurement acquisition or measurement retrieval, the frequency of measurement can be configured to be as frequent as every 15 minutes. Connection of the gateway to the operator's existing information technology infrastructure allows the data to be viewed from personnel desks. Sensor battery life of up to 10 years allows continuous data delivery between turnarounds without access to a sensor's physical location. The sensor model chosen for the present research (testing and validation) is the WT 210 series [2]. It consists of the 304 stainless steel wave guides, sensor head, antenna, battery and a stabilizer. In addition there is a built in thermocouple probe to monitor the pipe surface temperature which also allows the wall thickness measurement to be temperature compensated when required. The sensors communicate using a customized wireless protocol, creating a self-forming and self-managing wireless mesh, which delivers continuous wall thickness measurements of the highest integrity and accuracy directly to the end user. Scope of the present research includes the initial verification and validation of the Permasense Guided Wave sensor system as a potential erosion/corrosion detection system for carbon steel pipelines under static conditions. The real-time erosion/corrosion detection is also investigated by measuring the thinning of the pipe sections by circulating simulants and continuous monitoring. This is achieved by passing abrasive solutions through an in-house designed pipe loop system. The loop has been designed to replicate the sections and carbon steel pipe material similar to the existing system at Hanford site. Varying concentrations of sand and water mixture is used as an eroding agent [5]. The erosion experiments are conducted for several months and the results obtained provide realistic wear rates on 2 inch and 3 inch carbon steel pipes with straight sections and elbows using the Permasense UT sensor system. Thus, the present research delivers solutions for sensor evaluations and conducts bench scale testing followed by data acquisition and analysis for corrosion and erosion assessment. This assessment of the UT sensor system will be useful for monitoring the real-time thinning of the waste transfer pipelines and to deliver more realistic estimates of the remaining useful life of the components and incorporate those estimates into future design/testing plans across the nuclear waste sites.

This paper investigates a new viscosity model for laminar, transitional, and turbulent pipe flow simulations of a non-Newtonian slurry using the Star-CCM+ software. Herschel-Bulkley (HB) rheology equation was used in its original and modified forms to model the fluid viscosity. The realizable k-e model was used for modeling of turbulence. It was observed that simulations using the HB model predicted inaccurate profiles of U (mean velocity) and U+ (mean velocity in wall units). Therefore, we developed alternative values of viscosity obtained directly from non-linearity of stress–strain variation (α) in each iteration. The developed method, “Alpha method”, applied changes in places where dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy occurred and was designed based on local or global dissipation rate values. Inverse values of α were used to test effects of more viscosity reduction for all flow regimes. In prediction of the mean velocities, significant improvements were obtained through global adjustment of viscosity in inverse form during simulation of the laminar and turbulent flow cases. For the transitional flow, obtaining improvements in prediction of U and U+ from the same model version faced challenges. While the global adjustments in direct form were found significantly effective in improving the prediction of U, they failed to predict the U+ accurately. For this purpose, Local viscosity adjustments were found significantly effective.

Composite materials are a preferred choice when high strength/weight ratio and resistance to corrosion are needed. For assembly, composite parts are joined by using adhesives and/or fasteners. Due to the increased use of composites, there is a need for reliable and affordable structural health monitoring (SHM) methods for the detection of weakened bonds and loosened fasteners. Heterodyne effect may be utilized for the evaluation of debonded area when the linear characteristics of the system changes to nonlinear as a result of light contact in the bonding zone and this nonlinear system responds to appropriate bitonal excitations with new frequencies. Nonlinear elastic wave spectroscopy (NEWS) methods are using the same concept although they are limited to the combination of a high and a low frequency. Heterodyne method allows the engineers to have control over the new output frequencies as indicators of nonlinearity in the target structure. In this study, implementation of the heterodyne method is proposed for identification of the debonded region and evaluation of the compressive forces applied to facing plates. The proposed SHM method proved to be effective in both scenarios.

Array systems of transducers have found numerous applications in detection and localization of defects in structural health monitoring (SHM) of plate-like structures. Different types of array configurations and analysis algorithms have been used to improve the process of localization of defects. For accurate and reliable monitoring of large structures by array systems, a high number of actuator and sensor elements are often required. In this study, a compact phased array system consisting of only three piezoelectric elements is used in conjunction with an updated total focusing method (TFM) for localization of single and multiple defects in an aluminum plate. The accuracy of the localization process was greatly improved by including wave propagation information in TFM. Results indicated that the proposed CPA approach can locate single and multiple defects with high accuracy while decreasing the processing costs and the number of required transducers. This method can be utilized in critical applications such as aerospace structures where the use of a large number of transducers is not desirable. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Nonmetallic materials are used in waste transfer lines at the United States Department of Energy’s Hanford Site Tank Farm in Benton County, Washington, USA. During use, the ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) inner hose of the hose-in-hose transfer lines (HIHTLs) are exposed to β and γ radiation, caustic solutions as well as high temperatures and high pressures. Aging behavior of specimens of EPDM HIHTLs and dog-bone shaped specimens were evaluated by exposing to a solution of 25% sodium hydroxide (NaOH) at 38 °C, 54 °C and 77 °C for 6 and 12-months as well as water only at 77 °C for 12-months. Tensile strength and burst pressure of the specimens were characterized and compared with the unexposed (baseline) specimens. Both the tensile strength of the EPDM material and the burst pressure of the HIHTLs significantly decreased with the higher temperatures and longer exposure times. Analyses using scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) of the HIHTLs and the dog-bone specimens were conducted. Results show that the surface degradation increased with increasing exposure temperature. Penetration of NaOH into the EPDM material also increased with increasing temperature and exposure duration.

A novel approach is presented to constrain reduced-order models (ROM) based on proper orthogonal decomposition (POD). The Karush–Kuhn–Tucker (KKT) conditions were applied to the traditional reduced-order model to constrain the solution to user-defined bounds. The constrained reduced-order model (C-ROM) was applied and validated against the analytical solution to the first-order wave equation. C-ROM was also applied to the analysis of fluidized beds. It was shown that the ROM and C-ROM produced accurate results and that C-ROM was less sensitive to error propagation through time than the ROM.

Double Shell Tanks (DST's) at the Hanford Site in Washington store nuclear waste and require an understanding of tank integrity. Depending on the chemical composition and pH of the waste, certain temperature requirements are specified. However, the DST's are complex tanks and the methods used to find the temperature data, chemical composition, and other parameters provide results that are often uncertain. Temperature measurements are usually recorded more than 10 feet away from the walls primarily because of technical constraints. Results are fed into basic simulation models to get an estimation of the wall conditions. Hence, there exists a need to accurately measure and model the wall and inside temperatures. To resolve the issue, the authors attempt the use of a miniature pyrometer (Infrared (IR) temperature sensor) to be deployed into the annulus of the DST's. The IR sensor can be mounted on an annulus inspection camera or an ultrasonic testing crawler for temperature measurement of the outer wall for the DSTs. Further, advanced heat transfer based thermal models are developed using the software Solid works 2013 (simulation application) for accurate prediction of the nuclear waste temperatures in the tanks. Successful implementation of the pilot scale testing would result in the deployment of the technology for testing the nuclear waste storage tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington.

Surface response to excitation (SuRE) method is a low-cost alternative to electromechanical impedance based structural health monitoring (SHM) technique. The SuRE method uses one piezoelectric transducer to excite the surface of a structure with a sweep sine wave. Piezoelectric sensors or scanning laser vibrometer can be used to monitor the dynamic response of structure. In this study, the performance of the SuRE method was evaluated with the conventional piezoelectric elements and scanning laser vibrometer used as contact and non-contact sensors, respectively, for monitoring the presence of loads on the surface. In order to determine the accuracy and reliability of both monitoring approaches in detecting changes in level of applied load, three different experimental setups were studied. Response of a system in the presence of a single ​load applying and multiple loads applying and its performance in detecting tightness in a nut and bolt system were investigated. The spectrum of the dynamic response is collected at the optimal operating condition. Any significant change of the spectral characteristics may indicate defects, improper loading or loose fasteners. The performance of the SuRE method using contact and non-contact sensors indicated that both variations of the method could be successfully used in load monitoring applications.

Cobalt ferrite – barium titanate coreshell composite nanoparticles are an important part of the emerging field of magnetoelectric materials. Understanding the structure of these nanoparticles is vital towards controlling and adjusting their key properties for specific applications. Although transmission electron microscopy can reveal nanoparticle size, shape, and crystallinity, key information regarding the magnetic properties and the compositional makeup of the coreshell configuration remains elusive at nanoscale. This paper covers the use of scanning probe microscopy to directly measure these features using topography imaging, magnetic force imaging, and phase imaging. This technique provides significant insights into the intrinsic magnetoelectric coupling between the magnetostrictive cobalt ferrite core and the piezoelectric barium titanate shell. Particularly, this technique was applied to obtain phase images that directly exhibited the coreshell configuration, including an intermediate transition region between the core and the shell. The samples examined include 20 nm and 50 nm cobalt ferrite-barium titanate coreshell nanoparticles fabricated via co-precipitation and sol–gel synthesis. The results revealed a cuboid shape for the cobalt ferrite cores, and an oval shape for the cobalt ferrite-barium titanate coreshell nanoparticles. This result was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy. Additionally, the paper comprehensively analyzes the samples in their powder form via X-ray diffraction. The results indicate that the crystallinity of barium titanate is enhanced as the cobalt ferrite concentration is increased because of heterogeneous nucleation requiring a lower nucleation barrier compared to homogeneous nucleation.

A 7.62-cm diameter pipeline network was built at Florida International University in order to facilitate data acquisition for design optimization and performance evaluation of a pipeline unplugging technology by NuVision Engineering that was based on the fluidic wave-erosion principle. Three types of plug materials were used at three different test bed lengths (86.87, 189.28, and 547.73 m) to determine the effectiveness of the technology with respect to pipeline length. Erosion rates were determined for each plug type and at each test bed length. Although some correlation was observed between erosion rates and other test parameters, the parameters that directly influenced it were not easily discernible. The unplugging technology was observed to create an amplification of pressure at the plug location which was correlated to the process control parameters (i.e. an increase in drive time for the same drive pressure will increase the amplification factor an increase in suction time will decrease the amplification factor). It was also noted that the cavity size affected the amplification factor and resulting wave speeds. A numerical method based on the Method of Characteristics was used to predict the pressure and flow rates generated by the fluid transients caused by unplugging technology in the pipe. It was found that the results obtained from the numerical model was in good agreement with the pressure variation measured in the pipeline and that the modeling can be used to predict unplugging performance at longer pipelines.

Surface response to excitation (SuRE) method is a low-cost alternative to the electromechanical impedance method developed for the structural health monitoring (SHM) applications. This method uses one piezoelectric transducer to excite the surface of a structure with a sweep sine wave. One or more piezoelectric sensors or scanning laser vibrometer monitors the dynamic response of the surface to the excitation. The spectrum of the dynamic response is collected at the optimal operating conditions. Any significant change of the spectral characteristics may indicate defects, improper loading or loose fasteners.

In-field surface contamination and moisture detection is one of the critical issues in preparation of adhesive bonds between composite adherends for aircraft manufacture. In this paper, the feasibility of an all solid-sate electrochemical sensor technology is explored. Redox pairs or mediators are combined into a solid-state electrolyte, NafionTM. The output current in response to a cyclic polarization is used as the indication of the surface contamination level. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements using the sensors made were conducted. The results indicate that the small amount of moisture and/or sulfuric acid on initially cleaned and vacuumed polymer surfaces results in about 10 times increment of the peak current in cyclic voltammetry tests.

In this study the location of applied load on an aluminum and a composite plate was identified using two type of neural network classifiers. Surface Response to the Excitation (SuRE) method was used to excite and monitor the elastic guided waves on plates. The characteristic behavior of plates with and without load was obtained. The experiments were conducted using two set of equipment. First, laboratory equipment with a signal generator and a data acquisition card. Then same test was conducted with a low cost Digital Signal Processor (DSP) system. With experimental data, Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) and Radial Basis Function (RBF) neural network classifiers were used comparatively to detect the presence and location of load on both plates. The study indicated that the Neural Networks is reliable for data analysis and load diagnostic and using measurements from both laboratory equipment and low cost DSP. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Rapid screening and monitoring of hollow cylindrical structures using active guided-waves based structural health monitoring (SHM) techniques are important in chemical, petro-chemical, oil and gas industries. Successful implementation of the majority of these techniques in the SHM of pipes depends on the identification of the appropriate guided-waves modes and their frequencies for each application. The highly dispersive nature of the guided-waves and presence of multi modes at each frequency makes the mode selection and the interpretation of signals a challenging task. The surface response to excitation (SuRE) method was developed to detect the defects and loading condition changes on plates with minimum dependence on the excitation of particular modes at certain frequencies. In the present study, the SuRE method is proposed for quantification of longitudinal and circumferential defects, with varying severities, as common examples of axisymmetric and nonaxisymmetric defects in pipes. The results indicate that the SuRE method can be used effectively for damage quantification in hollow cylinders.

Adhesive bonding for composite structures offers multiple advantages over mechanical fasteners. Although the use of adhesive bonding has increased in the aerospace industry, it has still not replaced mechanical fasteners due to it being harder to inspect for damage after being manufactured/assembled, causing unreliability. Therefore, intensive quality control is needed while manufacturing to avoid weak bonds or any type of imperfection at the adhesive-adherend interface. To ensure the reliability of an adhesive bond, this project focuses on the advancement of a non-invasive field tool for adhesive quality evaluation. The tool developed is based on a B-H looper system, which can approximate the quality of an epoxy-based adhesive containing magneto-electric nanoparticles (MENs) by detecting changes in electric fields at the molecular level. Epoxy based adhesive samples containing 5 vol. % of MENs were manufactured and then scanned using the B-H looper system to correlate their magnetic signature as a function of curing time. It was determined that the magnetic signal converged between curing hours 10 and 12, indicating proper curing. Plain adhesive dogbone samples were used to determine the maximum tensile stress of the adhesive as a function of curing time, which also started converging at around the same curing hours until reaching ~41 MPa. Additionally, the evolution of the glass transition temperature of the adhesive was evaluated during the first curing hours. Convergence began at a curing time of 10 hours until reaching ~137 ⁰ C for fully cured samples. B-H looper magnetic signatures, tensile stresses testing, and glass transition temperatures were all correlated indicating a fully cured adhesive sample between 10 and 12 curing hours. These studies demonstrate the capabilities of the B-H looper system as a non-invasive inspection tool for adhesive quality.

Adhesive bonding has been shown to successfully address some of the main problems with traditional fasteners, such as the reduction of the overall weight and a more uniformly distributed stress state. However, due to the unpredictability of failure of adhesive bonds, their use is not widely accepted in the aerospace industry. Unlike traditional fastening methods, it is difficult to inspect the health of an adhesive joint once it has been cured. For adhesive bonding to be widely accepted and implemented, there must be a better understanding of the fracture mechanism of the adhesive joints, as well as a way to monitor the health of the bonds nondestructively. Therefore, in-field structural health monitoring is an important tool to ensure optimal condition of the bond is present during its lifetime. This project focuses on the advancement of a non-invasive field instrument for evaluation of the health of the adhesive joints. The tool developed is based on a B-H looper system where coils are arranged into a noise-cancellation configuration to measure the magnetic susceptibility of the samples with a lock-in amplifier. The B-H looper system can evaluate the state of damage in an adhesive bond by detecting changes in surface charge density at the molecular level of an epoxy-based adhesive doped with magneto-electric nanoparticles (MENs). Epoxy-based adhesive samples were doped with MENs and then scanned using the B-H looper system. To evaluate the health of the adhesive joint, microindentation and tensile tests were performed on MENs-doped adhesive samples to understand the relationship between mechanical damage and magnetic signal. Correlations between magnetic signatures and mechanical damage were minimally observed, thus future studies will focus on refining the procedure and damaging methodology.

Adhesive bonding for composite structures offers multiple advantages over traditional fasteners such as reducing the weight, creating a more uniformly distributed stress state in the joint, and elimination of stress concentration factors due to joining. However, the strength of adhesive bonds can be reduced due to environmental exposure, contamination, mechanical damage and fatigue and assurances of long-term durability and bond strength are not available. Before adhesive bonding of composites can be used on primary structures, a method for guaranteeing the bonds strength must be developed. Due to magneto-electric principles, magneto-electric nanoparticles (MENs) can be used to detect minute changes of electric fields at the molecular level through detectable changes of the nanoparticles’ magnetization. As a result, when integrated into epoxy based adhesives, MENs are capable of detecting chemical or mechanical induced material imperfections at the molecular level. Current efforts are focused on developing a field tool that can be used to obtain magnetic signatures from doped adhesives similar to those obtained via laboratory scale equipment (vibrating sample magnetometer). To achieve similar sensitivities, FIU is investigating the use of a B-H looper system. In this approach, the MENs material is probed with a specifically designed setup that includes small electric coils wrapped around the sample. The coils are arranged into a noisecancellation configuration to measure the magnetic susceptibility of the sample under various conditions with a lock-in amplifier. With the goal to identify signature response characteristics of specific environmental and mechanical effects, various epoxy based adhesive samples were doped with 30 nm diameter MENs. Differences in magnetic signatures were observed between environmentally aged samples and baseline samples, demonstrating the viability of the B-H looper system as a bond inspection tool.