A Completely Configurable Digital System for Simultaneous Measurements of Hysteresis Loops and Barkhausen Noise

This paper describes a new accurate completely digital configurable computer-aided system for the simultaneous measurements of magnetic hysteresis loops and Barkhausen noise in a wide range of excitation frequencies (from 0.01 to 80 Hz) for the purposes of inspection of material properties and microstructure characterization. The importance of the correct choice of the data-acquisition (DAQ) card to have enough resolution in both hysteresis loop and magnetic Barkhausen noise (MBN) measurements is emphasized. Both the magnetic induction signal to construct the magnetic hysteresis loop and the Barkhausen noise are computed by the digital processing (numerical integration and digital filtering, respectively) of the induced electromotive force (EMF) signal. The accuracy of the hysteresis loop measurements is improved by using additional digital filters. The resolution of MBN results in simultaneous measurements is tested. Finally, some results of hysteresis loops and root-mean-square (RMS) envelopes of the MBN signal are presented to show the capability of the system to work at different excitation frequencies without changing any hardware.