Self-Calibrating Stress Measurement System Based on Multidirectional Barkhausen Noise Measurements

Abstract The system presented in this paper enables automatization of the two-dimensional calibration process (determination of Barkhausen noise (BN) intensity dependence on in-plane components of strain). Then, using dedicated software created by the authors in LabVIEW environment, and with the help of two dimensional calibration data one can effectively determine strain and stress distribution i.e. magnitude and orientation of main strain/stress components relative to measurement direction. BN signal measurements are performed using an advanced, multidirectional Barkhausen noise (BN) measuring sensor and a measurement system dedicated for cooperation with it. The system uses a robust algorithm for the strain components determination based on calibration surfaces, instead of usually applied curves, thus taking the influence of normal strain component directly into account instead of treating it as a correction factor (if not completely neglecting). The originality of the system arises also from the fact that this is the first BN measurement system that is self-calibrating (i.e. automatically loads the calibration sample in a pre-programmed way, performs BN signal measurements and calculates calibration planes), provided that the user possesses enough of the investigated material for calibration sample preparation.