Synthesized Magnetic Field Focusing for the Non-Destructive Testing of Oil and Gas Well Casing Pipes Using Pulsed Eddy-Current Array

Abstract

In this article, we address the problem of synthesized magnetic field focusing (SMF) of the pulsed eddy-current (PEC) technology for the non-destructive testing (NDT) of oil and gas well casing pipes. The electromagnetic response excited by multiple transmitters was derived using the signal model of downhole PEC system. The magnetic field was shown to be adjustable by modifying the currents of the multiple transmitting array. Based on this property, magnetic fields were synthesized with the mean squared error (MMSE) criterion to be focused on the center of the transmitting array, and a weighted MMSE (WMMSE)-based SMF was also proposed to achieve an optimal synthetic magnetic field. Furthermore, the primal-dual interior-point method was used to solve the WMMSE optimization problem with the total and single transmit power constraints for the practical application. Simulations and experimental results showed that the SMF with the PEC array effectively focuses the eddy-current field on the center of the transmitting array.