A Barkhausen noise (BN) testing system was developed for the non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of residual stresses in CANDU reactor feeder pipes. The system consists of a four-channel arbitrary waveform flux control system (FCS), and the spring-loaded tetrapole prototype (SL4P) BN probe. The combination of the FCS and SL4P was shown to provide repeatable BN measurements on feeder pipe samples, with variations in air gaps between the SL4P poles and the sample from 0.43 mm to 1.29 mm, and typical pickup coil coupling uncertainties for the total BN energy from ±2% to ±7%. Precision for elastic strain estimation in feeder pipes was found to be between ±7 MPa and ±9 MPa in tension, depending on the excitation field configuration, and negligible in compression. Modelling of the BN penetration depth as a function of the excitation field was used to estimate the BN penetration depth between 5 μm at 300 kHz to a maximum of 500 μm at 3 kHz. The modelling, engineering, and procedures developed for this BN testing system provide an improved basis for the future advancement of BN testing, and ferromagnetic NDE in general. / Thesis (Ph.D, Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy) -- Queen's University, 2009-07-22 15:34:28.967