Measuring stress of strand using magnetic barkhausen noise measured by solenoid-type sensor

This paper presents a new approach on non-destructive stress estimation that involves measuring the magnetic Barkhausen noise (MBN) on prestressed strands using a solenoid-type sensor. Using a contact-type sensor on infrastructure is difficult because prestressed strands are wrapped with protective materials and cannot be directly touched. To test the feasibility of the new idea, a solenoid-type MBN sensor is developed that measures the stress of a seven-wire strand. The sensor consists of a magnetic-field inducing coil and a sensing coil, designed to generate a varying magnetic field and measure the change in magnetic flux, respectively. An infinite impulse response filter is recommended to obtain the MBN from the measured signal, and the root mean square (RMS) is introduced to determine the level of the MBN. An indoor test is performed on a seven-wire strand with a diameter of 15.2 mm. The test shows that the MBN’s RMS decreases as the tensile stress increases. The relationship between the MBN’s RMS and the strand’s stress exhibits a clear trend similar to those observed in previous studies using contact-type sensors. The test results indicate that it is possible to estimate the stress of a strand inside a duct using the solenoid-type MBN sensor.