Helical SH-Guided Wave EMAT Using a Double-Layer Staggered Oblique Folded Coil for Detecting Train Axle Cracks

作者：Hongyu Sun, Qibo Feng, Fajia Zheng, Jingqi Dong, Lisha Peng, Songling Huang, Zhichao Cai, Qiukun Wu · 发表于：IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1109/TIM.2025.3538060 · 被引用次数：8 · 研究领域：Computer Science

The safety service and intelligent operation and maintenance of key components in rail transit equipment are major challenges and demands faced by the high end and intelligent development of the manufacturing industry. The axle is a critical load-bearing component of high-speed train bogies and is prone to fatigue cracks during long-term high-intensity service, necessitating timely detection. Although the electromagnetic ultrasonic helical-guided wave nondestructive testing (NDT) method provides advantages such as noncontact operation, wide coverage, and long propagation distance, challenges remain in actual train axle detection, including low-energy conversion efficiency, inflexible adjustment of emission angles, and large transducer size. To address these challenges, we proposed a helical shear horizontal (SH)-guided wave electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) using a double-layer staggered oblique folded (DSOF) coil for detecting the train axle cracks. Compared to traditional racetrack coil EMATs, this new transducer structure more than doubles the intensity of the excited ultrasonic signal, halves the wave packet width, and can flexibly control the emission angle of the helical-guided wave by adjusting the excitation current; this enables the effective detection of multidirectional cracks in train axles. This study has significant value and practical implications for advancing the field of health detection in rail transit.