Design of eddy current-based dielectric constant meter for defect detection in glass fiber reinforced plastics

This paper presents the design of an eddy current testing probe for inspection of non-conductive glass fiber reinforced plastics. Because the magnetic field contains information pertaining to the permittivity of materials under test, eddy current testing offers the possibility of flaw detection in non-conductive materials through detection of the difference in permittivity between the intact part and the defective part of each material. We analytically investigated the design of a probe suitable for dielectric constant measurements. Experimental studies proved that the proposed probe can detect slit defects and flat-bottomed holes located 2 mm away from the surface of the glass fiber reinforced plastic samples.