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From Materials Evaluation, Vol. 76, No. 8, pp: 1108-1117.
Copyright © 2018 The American Society for Nondestructive Testing, Inc.
Quantitative MFL Testing Technique for Strand Rope
Based on a Small Number of Discontinuity Samples
by Shimin Pan†, Donglai Zhang*, and Enchao Zhang†
ABSTRACT
Magnetic flux leakage testing (MFL) technology is
widely used for the in-line inspection of ferromag-
netic steel ropes. A common MFL tool is composed
of permanent magnets that magnetize a rope
axially to saturation and an array of magnetic
sensors installed around the circumference of a
probe to sense the leakage flux caused by discon-
tinuities (such as broken wire, corrosion, and
abrasions) in the rope. During actual testing of
strand rope, the MFL discontinuity signals are
submerged in the strand waveform signal—the
magnetic signal of the surface of magnetized
strand rope—and are difficult to detect. The MFL
signal distortion is caused by the traditional
filtering technique or wavelet signal processing
technique. The error associated with quantitative
detection of MFL is caused by this factor. The
authors propose a technique of eliminating the
influence of the strand waveform signal and
enhancing the MFL signal based on the structure of
strand rope. Complex nonlinear relationships exist
between the size of discontinuities and the charac-
teristic values of the MFL signal during quantitative
detection; these relationships are combined with a
neural network. The problem with the quantitative
† Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen,
China
* Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen,
China; +86 0755 26033998; fax +86 0755 26033998;
email zhangdonglai@hit.edu.cn
1108 MATERIALS EVALUATION • AUGUST 2018
algorithm is the classification of broken wire
numbers and the different discontinuity sizes are
considered to be different classes. These tradi-
tional techniques based on neural nets used in
quantitative detection can determine the sizes of
discontinuities in the parameter space for which
the neural network is trained, so they require a
variety of real samples to train the network in
practical applications. In view of the aforemen-
tioned challenges, this paper proposes a new
technique of quantitative analysis that trains the
network without the need for a variety of real
discontinuity samples, and obtains accurate
results for actual discontinuities in strand rope.
KEYWORDS: magnetic flux leakage testing, quanti-
tative detection, strand wire rope, radial basis
function neural network, magnetic dipole model
Introduction
Magnetic flux leakage testing (MFL) techniques are widely
used for wire rope inspection to ensure integrity and safe
operation (Weischedel 1985; Stanley 1995). Wire rope is
magnetized to saturation in the axial direction with strong
permanent magnets, and the resulting magnetic field is
measured at the surface of the wire rope by magnetic sensors,
such as coil sensors, fluxgates, hall sensor arrays, and giant
magnetic resistors (Cao et al. 2006; Singh et al. 2007; Wei
and Jianxin 2002; Weischedel 1985; Weischedel and Ramsey
1989). A hall sensor array is designed to obtain the magnetic
flux leakage field of local discontinuities in wire ropes (Cao
et al. 2006). In actual testing of strand wire rope, the number
of hall sensors is limited by the size of the inspection device.
The issue with measuring the signal of the leakage magnetic
field using a hall sensor array is that it is difficult to obtain
complete information about the actual discontinuity. The lack
of sampling is caused by the small number of hall sensors.
This lack of sampling will cause errors in calculating charac-
teristic values (the peak value of the signal is the characteristic
value of MFL in some of the literature) of the leakage
magnetic field and will also cause inaccuracies in quantitative
detection. In general, metallic wire ropes are composed of
high-carbon steel wires that are twisted to form strands, and
the surface of the strand rope is a periodic curved surface. The
waveform of the surface magnetic signal of magnetized strand
rope measured by a hall sensor array, called a strand wave
signal, is similar to that of a sine curve or cosine curve.
According to spectral analysis of the magnetic signal
measured by a hall sensor array, the energy of the strand
waveform is the main part of the measured magnetic signal. It
is obvious that the strand waveform signal is more prominent
than the desired discontinuity signal (Cao et al. 2006). The
signal of the discontinuity is therefore submerged in the
strand waveform signal. Although most of the strand wave
signal can be filtered by traditional filtering techniques or
wavelet signal processing, these signal processing techniques
cause wave distortion in the MFL signal wave. This distortion
affects feature extraction from the MFL signal and causes
errors in quantitative detection. When the length of a discon-
tinuity is similar to the length of one strand period, the
frequency of the MFL signal is close to the frequency of the
strand wave signal. The MFL signal is thus difficult to distin-
guish by traditional filtering techniques and wavelet signal
processing, making the MFL signal of the discontinuity diffi-
cult to identify. In quantitative analysis of MFL, there is a
complex nonlinear relationship between the size of a disconti-
nuity and the characteristic value of the MFL signal. The
neural network technique can be used with nonlinear
mapping to classify discontinuities in quantitative inspection
(Cao et al. 2006; Zhang et al. 2012). This technique can
determine the sizes of discontinuities in the parameter space
for which the neural network is trained, so a variety of samples
is required to train the network for practical applications. The
sample library should include a variety of discontinuities.
There are two types of sample libraries: one is the standard
discontinuity sample library obtained from standard manufac-
tured discontinuities; the other type is a nonstandard discon-
tinuity sample library that is accumulated during actual
inspection. The standard discontinuity sample library is diffi-
cult to produce. In MFL, the rope is magnetized to saturation
by a permanent magnet. The magnetization of the certain
permeability and structure rope is fixed for the particular exci-
tation device. In actual testing, the permeability and structure
of ropes can vary, which can cause the magnetization of the
rope to differ in the same exciting device. This leads to
different characteristic values for the same discontinuity in
different ropes and can cause network overfitting and errors in
quantitative analysis. Similarly, it is difficult to use a nonstan-
dard discontinuity sample library accumulated during an
actual inspection to train the network. The technique of clas-
sifying discontinuities using a neural network does not
consider the different magnetization variations in ropes. In
this case, if a precise result for quantitative analysis is
expected, a complete library of samples must be tested under
different magnetization conditions. The result is that accurate
quantitative determination is very difficult.
In view of the aforementioned problem, this paper proposes
a new quantitative technique for MFL of strand rope. The tech-
nique uses a reasonable number of hall sensors to eliminate the
signal of the strand wave and enhance the MFL signal of discon-
tinuities using the sum of different channels of the signals detected
by hall sensors. (Here, “reasonable” means to determine the
number of sensors according to the outer strand number of rope;
Equation 5, presented later in this paper; and the maximum
number of sensors that can be arranged.) Moreover, a relation-
ship is established between the MFL signal characteristics and the
size of discontinuities using magnetic-dipole models. The discon-
tinuity sample library was created by numerical simulation based
on magnetic-dipole models to train a neural network for the
inversion of discontinuity size. The relationship between the
numerical simulation and the actual discontinuity was deter-
mined by using a small number of numerical simulation samples
and the corresponding actual discontinuity samples. Accurate
results for quantitative analysis were obtained from this relation-
ship and the inversion neural network.
MFL Testing System and Structure of Strand Rope
The strand rope inspection system was primarily composed of
a magnetizer mechanism, a hall sensor array, and a data acqui-
sition system. Magnetization using a permanent magnet has
the advantage of a small mechanism volume, high magnetiza-
tion, steady performance, and no need for excitation. The
permanent magnets, yokes, and strand rope in the magnetizer
mechanism constitute a magnetic circuit to magnetize the
strand rope to saturation. The magnetizer mechanism, shown
in Figures 1a and 1b, has eight circumferentially uniform
loops and was used to longitudinally magnetize the strand
rope to saturation (Cao et al. 2006). The hall sensor array,
shown in Figure 1c, was composed of hall sensors that were
uniformly distributed along the circumference of the strand
rope in the center of the magnetic circuit to capture the stray
field of the rope surface when the rope moves. The radial
component (pointing radially outward from the rope) of the
magnetic field intensity is measured by hall sensors.
A 6 36 (outer strand number wire number) independent
wire rope with a diameter of 38 mm was used in the experiment.
The strands were twisted with high-quality carbon steel strings,
and then a number of strands were turned around the core to
form a wire rope (as shown in Figure 1d). The surface of the
strand rope was a periodic curved surface. The waveform of
the surface magnetic signal of the magnetized strand rope
measured by one channel of the hall sensor array was the strand
wave signal, which is similar to a sine curve or cosine curve
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Yoke Permanent
Yokes magnets
S N
Permanent
N S
magnets

Wire rope

N S
Hall sensors
S N

(a) (b)

Hall sensors

(c) (d)

Figure 1. Experimental setup: (a) schematic of the magnetizer mechanism; (b) photograph of the magnetizer mechanism; (c) photograph of the
hall sensor array; and (d) the structure of strand rope with a cross-sectional view.

(as shown in Figure 2a). According to spectral analysis of the
magnetic signal measured from one channel of the hall sensor
array, the energy of the strand waveform was the most promi-
nent in the detected signal (as shown in Figure 2b). It is
obvious that the strand waveform signal was more noticeable
than the desired discontinuity signal (Cao et al. 2006). The
MFL signal of the discontinuity was submerged in the strand
waveform signal. Although most of the strand wave signal
could be filtered by traditional filtering techniques or wavelet
signal processing, these signal processing techniques cause
wave distortion of the MFL signal. Figure 2c shows the distor-
tion of the MFL signal after using a notch filter. This distor-
tion affects feature extraction from the MFL signal and causes
error in quantitative detection. When the length of the discon-
tinuity is close to the length of one strand period, the
frequency of the MFL signal is close to the frequency of the
strand wave signal. The MFL signal is difficult to distinguish
using traditional filtering techniques or wavelet signal
processing. This technique uses a reasonable arrangement of
the number of hall sensors to eliminate the signal of the strand
wave and enhance the MFL signal of discontinuities using the
sum of different channels of the signal detected by the hall
effect sensors, as discussed in the next section.
Technique for Eliminating the Strand Wave Signal
The surface of the strand rope is a periodic curved surface;
therefore, the signal of the strand wave detected by the hall
sensor is similar to a sine curve or cosine curve. According to
the structure of the strand rope, there is a phase difference
between the strand wave signals detected by hall sensors at
different locations (as shown in Figure 3a). Therefore, based
on the phase difference, the sum of strand wave signals can
eliminate the influence of the strand wave by using the appro-
priate number of hall sensors uniformly distributed around
the circumference of the rope surface. For ideal inspection
conditions, different channels of hall sensors are individually
calibrated; the sensor liftoff for different channels is the same;
and the strands of the rope are uniformly distributed around
the rope circumference. Analysis of the reasonable number of
hall sensors is given as follows.
Let ns be the number of rope outer strands and nh be the
number of hall sensors. Let the voltage signals, Ui, Ui+1,

1110 MATERIALS EVALUATION • AUGUST 2018

 3.2
2.4
Strand waveform MFL waveform
3
2.8 2.3
Voltage of hall sensor (V)

Voltage of hall sensor (V)

2.6
2.2
2.4
2.2 2.1
2
1.8 2

1.6
1.9
1.4 Channel i
Channel i+1
1.2 1.8
0 200 400 600 800 1000 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
(a) Sampling points (a) Sampling points

450
0.5
400
Amplitude spectrum of signal

MFL signals
Radial component

Sum of
350 Frequency of the strand waveform

of MFL field
300
0
250
Sampling points
200
150 Frequency of the
MFL waveform –0.5
100 10
50 Z 0
0 –10
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 –20 –15 –10 –5 0 5 10 15 20
(b) Spatial domain frequency (b) X

2.6
2.55 3.5
signals
Sum of
magnetic field intensity

2.5
Radial component of

3
Voltage signal (V)

2.45
2.5 Sampling points
2.4
2.35 2
2.3
1.5
2.25
2.2 1
40
2.15 Ch
an 20
2.1 ne 1000 1500
ls 0 0 500
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
(c) Sampling points (c) Sampling points

Figure 2. The waveform of detection and the signal processing: (a) the
strand waveform and discontinuity magnetic flux leakage waveform
measured by one channel of the hall sensor array; (b) the amplitude
spectrum of the signal in Figure 2a; and (c) the distortion of the
magnetic flux leakage signal after employing a notch filter.
Figure 3. The waveform of detection of different channels and the
distribution of magnetic field: (a) the strand wave signals detected by
hall sensors at different locations; (b) the distribution of the magnetic
flux leakage of a discontinuity based on the magnetic-dipole model
and the sum of the magnetic flux leakage discontinuity signals; and
(c) the magnetic field distribution around the strand rope and the
sum of the distribution; the red arrow indicates the signal generated
by the discontinuity.

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from the two hall sensors placed at adjacent positions (called distribution around the strand rope is shown in Figure 3c. As
channel i and channel i+1) be expressed as follows: shown by the small illustration at the top right of Figure 3c,
the MFL signal of the discontinuity is enhanced and the
⎧⎪U = U cos (ωt + iϕ ) strand waveform signal is eliminated by this technique.
i 0 0
⎨
⎩⎪Ui+1 = U0 cos (ωt + ⎣ i + 1⎤⎦ ϕ 0 )
(1) ⎡
Magnetic-Dipole Model and Characteristic Values of the
where Sum of the MFL Signal
t is the number of sample points for equal space sampling The magnetic-dipole model is invaluable for a better under-
in the inspection, and standing and more effective use of mathematical modeling of
0 is the phase difference between the different strand MFL (Dutta et al. 2009). Its analytical expression form is
wave signals from the two hall sensors at adjacent conducive to quantitative analysis of discontinuities using
positions. MFL. Considering the structure of strand rope, the wire is
continuous in the axial direction of the rope, and the length
According to the structure of the strand rope, the phase along the axial direction of the broken wire is much higher
difference can be expressed as 0 = 2 ns / nh. than the depth in the radial direction and the width in the
is the spatial frequency of the strand wave form, that is: circumferential direction. Therefore, the rectangular disconti-
nuity is similar to a broken wire in the rope. In this study, the
(2) ω = 2π / N p magnetic-dipole model of a rectangular discontinuity was
used to determine the distributions of the leakage magnetic
where field to analyze the relationship between the size of the
Np is number of sampling points in one strand waveform discontinuity and the MFL signal characteristic values. The
period (Cao et al. 2006). magnetic field at space position r generated by a ferromag-
netic discontinuity is given by:
For consistency and repeatability of the MFL results, the r r r r
hall sensors should be densely and uniformly distributed r r M n (s ) ⋅ i r r r
(6) HMFL (r ) = ∫S r r 3 (
r – s ) dS ( s )
around the testing rope. Therefore, the sum of all channels of 4π r – s
the hall sensors is expressed as Equation 3.
nh where
(3) U Σ = ∑ Ui H MFL(r ) denotes the discontinuity leakage magnetic field
i =1
intensity at point r ,
The formula of the trigonometric function can be stated as s represents the position vector of surface elements, which
Equation 4. constitute the discontinuity surface,
nh ϕ 0 S gives the surface area of the ferromagnetic elements,
sin
2 cos ⎜ ωt + (nh + 1) ϕ ⎟
⎛ ⎞ M is the magnetization vector, and
(4) UΣ = U0 ⎜ 0⎟
ϕ ⎝ 2 ⎠ n is the local unit normal vector of area S (Trevino
sin 0
2 et al. 2016).

Therefore, if ns and nh satisfy the relation in Equation 5, For a rectangular discontinuity, if the magnetization direc-
the sum of signals from all hall sensors in the array can elimi- tion is the direction along the X axis in a rectangular coordi-
nate the strand wave: nate system, n (s ) i and dS(s ) can be expressed as:
ns r r r r
(5) ∉Z (7) n ( s ) ⋅ i = 1; dS ( s ) = dy0 dz0
nh

where
Z is the integer set.
The distribution of the leakage magnetic field of disconti-
nuities is continuous, as shown by the magnetic-dipole model
(Figure 3b). The sum of signals detected by the hall sensors at
different locations can enhance the MFL signal (shown in the
small illustration at the top right of Figure 3b). Considering
the reduction of the effect of subsampling of hall sensors in a
circumferential distribution, and the size of the sensors, the
number of hall sensors in this test was 30. The magnetic field
where
i is the unit normal vector of the X axis, and
y0, z0 are the length of the surface area of the ferromagnetic
elements on the Y axis and Z axis, respectively, in a
rectangular coordinate system.
For MFL of the rope, the circumference of the rope was
unrolled and used as a base (Zhang et al. 2012). Figure 4
shows this unrolling process. The three orthogonal
components of the MFL field of a discontinuity, called the
axial component (along the axis of the rope), the radial

1112 MATERIALS EVALUATION • AUGUST 2018

component (pointing radially outward from the rope), and the hall sensor array. Based on Equation 6 and the actual test
the tangential component (in the circumferential direction) conditions, the distribution of the radial components of the
correspond to the X, Y, and Z axes, respectively (Figure 4), of MFL field discontinuity is shown in Figure 3b.
the rectangular coordinate system of the model. The radial Generally, there are two key parameters for representing
component of the MFL discontinuity field was measured by the signals of the radial components, namely, the peak-height
value, Sh, and the peak-width value, Sw (Sun et al. 2016).
Consider the sum signal of the waveform detected by the hall
sensors is similar to the radial components of the MFL signal;
Strand rope
the two same key parameters are the characteristic values in
Y N (sampling points) this technique (as shown in Figure 5a).
The ultimate goal was evaluating the safety factor and life
prediction of the rope using quantitative analysis of MFL of
Z Rope axis
strand rope. Accurate evaluation of the discontinuity size is an
X important factor in MFL. Obtaining the relationship between
360 180 0 the characteristic values of test signals and the size of actual
Rope circumference (°)
discontinuities, as well as evaluating the size of discontinuities
based on this relationship, are the key challenges in MFL. In
quantitative analysis of MFL inspection, there is a complex
Figure 4. Unrolled measuring surface and the corresponding nonlinear relationship between the discontinuity size and
rectangular coordinates. the MFL signal characteristic values. The neural network

8
6
wd Diameter
Sum of MFL signals

Diameter of rope

4
of wire
ld
2
Sw
0
Diameter
of strand

–2
Sh
–4
–6
–8
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
(a) Sampling points (b)

10
140
8
120
6
100
Sh

Sw

4
80
2
60
0 20
30 40 10
20 20 25 wd
10 15 20 15 10 0
5 10 5
ld 0 0 wd ld
(c) (d)

Figure 5. Characteristic values, discontinuity size, and their relationship: (a) the characteristic values (Sh, Sw) of the sum of the magnetic flux
leakage signals; (b) the discontinuity size; (c) the relationship between the characteristic value Sh and the discontinuity size; and (d) the
relationship between the characteristic value Sw and the discontinuity size.

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technique can be used with the nonlinear relationship to
classify discontinuities in quantitative inspection. In this
research, the relationship between the characteristic values of
test signals and the size of actual discontinuities was obtained
by simulation data based on the magnetic-dipole model and
the actual test conditions, to avoid a variety of actual samples
required to train the network.
Because broken wires on the surface of strand rope were
the main type of discontinuity sample used in this study, the
discontinuity size could be simplified as the length, ld, in the
axial direction and the width, wd (as shown in Figure 5b), in
the circumferential direction (also called the tangential direc-
tion). Based on the magnetic-dipole model and the actual test
conditions (the range of discontinuity sizes, the number of
hall sensors, and the space sampling interval in the axial direc-
tion), the relationship between the characteristic values
(Sh, Sw) of the sum of the MFL signals and the discontinuity
size are shown in Figure 5c. The curved surface in Figure 5c
shows the relationship between Sh and the discontinuity size
(ld, wd). The relationship between Sw and the discontinuity
size (ld, wd) is shown in Figure 5d. Choosing the peak-height
value, Sh, and peak-width value, Sw, of the sum of the MFL
signal has the following advantages: it reduces the effect of the
uniform distribution of magnetic charges in the magnetic-
dipole model; it reduces the effect of the lack of sampling
caused by the limited number of hall sensors; it reduces the
effect of the different liftoff values of the hall sensors (the
distance between the hall sensor and the surface of the strand
rope, generally 2 to 3 mm) during actual testing; and it
reduces the number of parameters that are needed to get a
good picture of the discontinuity’s features using the MFL
signal and simplifies the problem of inversion in quantitative
analysis.
Inversion Network Based on Radial Basis Function
Neural Network
Estimating the precise discontinuity size using the actual test
signal of a strand rope obtained through the relationship
between characteristic values from the MFL signal and the
size of the discontinuity is the main problem of quantitative
analysis in MFL testing. Although the magnetic-dipole model
has an analytical expression form, the relative position of the
discontinuity and the hall sensors is uncertain, and the rela-
tionship between characteristic values and the discontinuity
size is difficult to express in analytical form. The relationship
between the characteristic values and the discontinuity size
can be expressed as a curved surface, so the curve fitting
accomplished using the radial basis function (RBF) neural
network (Broomhead and Lowe 1988) is used to obtain the
relationship in this study.
An RBF network is an artificial neural network that uses
RBFs as activation functions. The output of the network is a
linear combination of the RBFs of the inputs and neuron
parameters. RBF networks have many uses, including curve or
1114 MATERIALS EVALUATION • AUGUST 2018
surface fitting, function approximation, time series prediction,
classification, and system control. This algorithm represents a
forward neural network approach. Its advantages are that any
continuous function can be approximated with a high degree
of accuracy; it is a fast learning approach; it provides a global
minimum; and it functions suitably well. The structure of the
RBF neural network (Poggio et al. 1990) is similar to that
found in multilayer forward networks, which include input,
hidden, and output layers. The input layer consists of the
input vectors and a single hidden layer. The number of
hidden layers depends on the problem. The input, output,
and RBF network can be expressed as:
⎡ld ⎤ ⎡Sh ⎤
⎢ ⎥ = net ⎢ ⎥
(8)
⎣ wd ⎦ ⎣Sw ⎦
where
net is the RBF network,
ld, wd are the discontinuity sizes, and
Sh, Sw are the characteristic values from the sum of the
MFL signals.
To obtain an accurate relationship, the RBF neural
network requires many samples to train the network. The
samples are obtained by numerical simulation based on the
magnetic-dipole model, which reduces the effect of magneti-
zation conditions and can be easily obtained. To use the
numerical simulation to obtain an accurate relationship, the
following parameters for actual testing should be set: the
diameter of the wire on the surface of the rope, the diameter
of the rope, the location of the hall sensors, the range of the
discontinuity length in the axial direction, and the range of the
width in the circumferential direction. According to the afore-
mentioned parameters, the distribution of leakage magnetic
field intensity in the radial direction of a series of discontinu-
ities with different sizes can be obtained by Equations 6 and 7,
after which the characteristic values of the sum of the MFL
signals can be calculated from the distribution of the leakage
magnetic field intensity. The characteristic values and the
corresponding discontinuity sizes can be used to train the
inversion network based on Equation 8, and the inversion
network can be obtained.
Relationship between Numerical Simulation
and Actual Testing
The inversion network is trained by the characteristic values
and the corresponding discontinuity sizes obtained by numer-
ical simulation, which cannot be used in the actual test
because the magnetized condition is not considered in the
numerical simulation (the numerical simulation set M / 4 in
Equation 6 is equal to one). The relationship between the
numerical simulation and actual testing needs to be confirmed
to apply the inversion network during the testing. For
different discontinuity sizes in the same rope and same
magnetizer, it can be assumed that the magnetized conditions To verify the linear relationship of Equation 9, the MFL
are the same, and the magnetic charge densities on the signals of nine discontinuities of different sizes were measured
discontinuity cross sections are the same and unrelated to the to calculate the characteristic values S hʹ and S wʹ . The character-
discontinuity size. According to the magnetic-dipole model, istic values Sh, Sw of corresponding discontinuities were calcu-
the relationship between the simulation data and actual test lated from the numerical simulation. This relationship is
data can be assumed to be a linear relationship for the same shown in Figure 6. From Figure 6, the characteristic values of
discontinuity size: the simulation data and the characteristic values of actual test
data can be assumed to have a linear relationship for the same
⎧Sh = A1 × Sh′ + b1 discontinuity size.
(9) ⎨
⎩⎪Sw = A2 × S′w + b2 Based on Equation 9, the relationship between the numer-
ical simulation and actual testing could be confirmed, and the
where technique requires few actual discontinuity samples (two
Sh, Sw are the characteristic values from the numerical minimum). In the actual test, for ropes with different mate-
simulation, rials or structures, the relationship between the numerical
Shʹ , Swʹ are the characteristic values from the actual test, and simulation and actual testing can also be confirmed easily
A1, A2, b1, b2 are undetermined coefficients. using a few actual discontinuities of known size. The charac-
teristic values of the MFL signal in actual test conditions
convert to the characteristic values of the MFL signal from
numerical simulation by the aforementioned relationship.
4
The Process Flow of the Technique
3.5 The process flow of the technique proposed in the paper is as
follows:
3
l Step 1. Determine the parameters of the actual inspection:

2.5
the diameter of the surface wire, diameter of the rope,
location of hall sensors, range of the discontinuity length in
Sh

2 the axial direction, and range of the width in the circumferen-

tial direction.
1.5 l Step 2. Based on the parameters above and the magnetic-
dipole model, calculate the distribution of leakage magnetic
1 Points (S'h - Sh ) field intensity in the radial direction of a series of discontinu-
Sh = A1 × S'h+b1
ities of different sizes and the characteristic values of the sum
0
1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 of MFL signals.
(a) S'h l Step 3. Train the inversion network using samples of charac-
teristic values and the corresponding discontinuity sizes
160 obtained by numerical simulation.
l Step 4. Confirm the relationship between the actual inspec-
140
tion and numerical simulation using a few actual discontinu-
120 ities of known size with respect to the characteristic values of
the sum of MFL signals and the characteristic values of the
100 corresponding discontinuity sizes by numerical simulation.
Sw

l Step 5. Convert the characteristic values of the MFL signal of

80
the discontinuity of unknown size in the actual inspection to
60 the characteristic values of the MFL signal of numerical simu-
Points (S'w , Sw )
lation though the relationship in Step 4.
40 l Step 6. Use the converted characteristic values in Step 5 and
Sw = A 2 × S'w +b 2

20
the inversion network trained in Step 2, calculating the
8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 discontinuity size corresponding to the MFL signal in Step 5.
(b) S'w
Results of Quantitative Detection
Figure 6. The relationship of characteristic values between the In the experiment performed to investigate the performance
numerical simulation and actual testing: (a) the relationship between of the proposed technique, a 6 36 independent wire rope with
Sh and Shʹ of the samples and the fitting line; and (b) the relationship
between Sw and Swʹ of the samples and the fitting line.
a diameter of 38 mm was used as the specimen, and 18 artificial
discontinuities (similar to those shown in Figure 5b) of

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TABLE 1
The sizes of artificial discontinuities*
No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Length 1 6 9 11 18 20 23 21.3 8 11 14 17 19 23 8 13 20 14
(mm)
Width 4.4 2.2 2.2 2.2 2.2 2.2 2.2 4.4 4.4 4.4 4.4 4.4 4.4 4.4 6.6 6.6 6.6 4.4
(mm)
* The result of quantitative analysis by the technique proposed in the paper.

different sizes (Table 1) were made on the strand rope,
including single and multiple broken wires. Specifically, the
first discontinuity was a small gap that damaged lengths
smaller than the width of the wire. The last discontinuities
30
Length of discontinuities (mm)
were multiple wires broken in tandem (not in the same cross
section, but close to each other). The length of each broken
wire was 7 mm and the width of each was 4.4 mm.
From Figure 7, the maximum error for the discontinuity
length was 1.47 mm, and the maximum error for the width
was 1.28 mm. The broken wire on the surface of the strand
rope was the main discontinuity in the samples used in this
Actual length
Results by the method research, so the width in the circumferential direction of the
Error of length
discontinuity was a product of the diameter of the surface

25 wire and the number of broken wires. The diameter of the

surface wire was 2.2 mm, and the number of broken wires
20 could be obtained from the discontinuity width. The error for
the number of broken wires in the quantitative analysis tech-
15 nique was less than one. Accurate results for the actual discon-
tinuities were obtained using the quantitative analysis
10 technique proposed in this paper, and only two samples of
actual discontinuities (nos. 2 and 16) were used.
5
Conclusion
0 In this paper, a new quantitative technique for testing strand
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
rope based on MFL was proposed. The technique used a
(a) Number of discontinuities
reasonable number of hall sensors to eliminate the signal of
the strand wave, avoid MFL signal distortion, and reduce the
9
Actual length
Results by the method
effect of the noise and liftoff during actual testing by the sum
Error of length of different channels of the signal measured by hall sensor
Width of discontinuities (mm)

8
arrays. Moreover, the relationship between the characteristic
7 values from the sum of the MFL signals and the discontinuity
6
sizes by the magnetic-dipole model was established. The rela-
tionship was determined by an RBF network trained by
5 samples obtained from numerical simulation based on the
4 magnetic-dipole model. This technique avoided the need for a
variety of actual discontinuity samples to train the network
3
and reduced the impact of the magnetized condition in the
2 inspection. Using the relationship between actual testing and
1 numerical simulation confirmed by a few discontinuities of
known size, the characteristic values for actual testing could
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 be converted to the corresponding characteristic values from
(b) Number of discontinuities the numerical simulation. The discontinuity sizes were calcu-
lated by the converted characteristic values and the RBF
Figure 7. The result of quantitative analysis by the proposed network in the quantitative technique. Accurate results
technique: (a) the length of the discontinuities obtained (the for discontinuity sizes were obtained by the quantitative
maximum of error is 1.47 mm and the maximum of relative error technique; the error for discontinuity sizes was less than
is 4.47%); and (b) the width of the discontinuities obtained 1.5 mm, and the error for the number of broken wires was
(the maximum of error is 1.28 mm and the maximum of relative
error is 14.1%).
less than one.

1116 MATERIALS EVALUATION • AUGUST 2018

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Figure 1d is reprinted from Materials Evaluation, Vol. 74, No. 12 (Sukho-
rulov, V.V., “Metrology in Electromagnetic Nondestructive Testing:
Correct Evaluation of Test Parameters.”) Reprinted with permission of the
American Society for Nondestructive Testing Inc.
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AUGUST 2018 • MATERIALS EVALUATION 1117