A Novel Magnetic Equivalent Circuit Approach in Magnetic Flux Leakage Test System Design

Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) is a widely used non-destructive testing method for ferromagnetic materials in the industry. Using this method, defects occurring within the material structure are detected, and their characteristics are evaluated. The design of the MFL test system, which performs the inspection process, is of critical importance for the reliable and accurate detection of these defects. Although three-dimensional (3D) magnetic analysis simulations used during the design phase produce highly accurate results, they incur high computational and time costs. An alternative approach to reducing this computational burden is the design of the MFL test system using the Magnetic Equivalent Circuit (MEC) method. In this study, a novel Segmented MEC (SMEC) model is proposed for magnetic system design. The validity of the developed SMEC model was tested on an MFL test system design. For this purpose, a sample MFL test system was analyzed in a 3D FEM simulation environment, and the obtained data were recorded as a performance reference. Subsequently, both the conventional MEC and the proposed SMEC models were developed for the designed MFL test system, and analysis results were generated. The performances of both methods were examined by taking the 3D FEM results as a reference. The findings demonstrate that the SMEC model achieves approximately 11% higher accuracy than the conventional MEC model.