Measuring the Magnetic Polarizability Tensor Using an Axial Multi-Coil Geometry

The Magnetic Polarizability Tensor (MPT) is a representative property of an electrically conducting or magnetic object that includes information about the object’s characteristics such as, shape, size and material. The MPT is especially relevant to metal detection (MD) and can be used to improve MD performance by helping to distinguish between objects. This paper describes an instrument intended to measure the MPT of objects such as anti-personnel landmines and metallic clutter, up to 130 mm in diameter. The instrument uses a novel multi-coil geometry to generate a uniform electromagnetic field over the volume containing the test object to accurately determine the MPT. Performance tests of the system shows peak variance in the MPT is approximately 15 mm3. Typical experimental repeatability is better than one percent for tests involving copper disks. Additionally, simulated data as well as previously published simulated and experimental data are used as a validation method of the experimental results. Good agreement between these and the measured MPTs of example targets are seen, proving the system’s capability of characterizing metallic objects.