The measurement of elastic waves in a nonferromagnetic plate by a patch-type magnetostrictive sensor

The coupling phenomenon between stress and magnetic induction, known as magnetostriction, has been successfully applied to generate and measure elastic waves. Most applications of this phenomenon thus far, however, are rather limited to cylindrical ferromagnetic waveguides. The main objective of this work is to develop a new patch-type, orientation-adjustable magnetostrictive transducer that is applicable for non-cylindrical, non-ferromagnetic waveguides. The existing patch-type transducer consisting of a ferromagnetic patch and a racetrack coil is useful to generate elastic waves only in one specific direction once the patch is bonded to a test specimen. However, the proposed transducer can transmit and receive elastic waves in any direction only with one patch at a given location. The proposed magnetostrictive transducer consists of a circular nickel patch, a figure-of-eight coil, and a couple of bias permanent magnets. Because of the unique configuration of the transducer, the propagating direction of the generated waves can be freely controlled since the set of bias magnets and the coil is not bonded to the magnetostrictive patch. In this work, the characteristics of the proposed transducer were investigated experimentally