PhD Studentship in High temperature focused EMAT arrays

University of Warwick 

Supervisor: Dr Rachel Edwards

Contact: r.s.edwards@warwick.ac.uk

High temperature electromagnetic acoustic transducers EMATs typically use water cooling, enabling ultrasonic inspection at temperatures of up to 1000C. Recent research has shown that EMATs which do not require water cooling can also be produced, with operating temperatures of up to around 650C possible. These have been used for thickness gauging, producing a shear wave and measuring reflections from the back face of a sample. Alongside this work, EMAT arrays and focused designs have been produced to enable higher resolution ultrasonic imaging. These have only been used for room-temperature measurements and typically have a small number of elements due to the size of the EMATs. 

This project will take the next steps to producing an EMAT array, consisting of multiple channels, that can be operated at high temperatures without the requirement for water cooling. The inspection modality and wavemode choice will be guided by industrial needs, with the potential for using Rayleigh, Lamb, shear-horizontal or bulk waves, depending on the defect position and type. The ability to perform higher resolution high temperature inspection with this array will be tested for multiple defects and sample geometries.