• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.465-471
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• 2013

A steam generator in nuclear power plant is a heatexchager which is used to convert water into steam from heat produced in a nuclear reactor core, and the steam produced in steam generator is delivered to the turbine to generate electricity. Because of damage to steam generator tubing may impair its ability to adequately perform required safety functions in terms of both structural integrity and leakage integrity, eddy current testing is periodically performed to evaluate the integrity of tubes in steam generator. This assessment is normally performed during a reactor refueling outage. Currently, the eddy current testing for steam generator of nuclear power plant in Korea is performed in accordance with KEPIC & ASME Code requirements, the eddy current testing system is consists of remote data acquisition unit and data analysis program to evaluate the acquired data. The KEPIC & ASME Code require that the electrical properties of remote data acquisition unit, such as total harmonic distortion, input & output impedance, amplifier linearity & stability, phase linearity, bandwidth & demodulation filter response, analog-to-digital conversion, and channel crosstalk shall be measured in accordance with the KEPIC & ASME Code requirements. In this paper, the measurement requirements of electrical properties for eddy current testing instrument described in KEPIC & ASME Code are presented, and the measurement results of newly developed eddy current testing instrument by KHNP(Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., LTD) are presented.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.89-96
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• 2007

The bobbin probe examination is basic and the important method among other ECT techniques for the steam generator tube integrity assesment that is practiced during each plant outage. The bobbin probe is one of the essential components which consist of the whole ECT examination system, and provides us a decisive data for the evaluation of tube integrity in compliance with acceptance criteria described in specific procedures. The selection of examination probe is especially important because the quality of acquired ECT data is determined by the probe design characteristics, such as geometry and operation frequency, and has enormous effects on examination results. In this study, An optimal differential bobbin probe is designed for the steam generator tube inspection in nuclear power plants(NPPs). Based on the test results for electrical and ECT signal characteristics, the prototype bobbin probe satisfies all the criteria.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.56-63
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• 2012

In this study, a field applicability of reboiler tube was evaluated by comparing ECT signal with IRIS signal about wall loss rate and remaining wall thickness using worked austenite STS 316L ASME standard calibration tube. In the case of wall-loss rate, as a result, tolerance about $20%{\times}4$ flat bottom hole and 10% O D groove(ECT), 80% defect and 10% O D groove(IRIS) occurred up to ${\pm}15%$. In the case of remaining wall thickness, ECT was satisfied with the both tolerance, but tolerance about 80% defect occurred up to ${\pm}15%$ in IRIS. Therefore, if the IRIS is performed for interpretation of non-relevant indication and measurement of wall-loss rate after ECT, reliability is supposed to be improved.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2007.07a
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• pp.2034-2035
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• 2007

투과형 펄스와전류(Pulsed Eddy Current; PEC) 탐상을 대상으로 수치해석 방법을 사용하여 펄스와전류 탐상신호를 예측하고, 펄스의 폭이 신호에 미치는 영향을 조사하였다. 그 결과 전도도나 두께가 증가하면 PEC 신호의 최대값이 작아지며 최대값 발생시간이 지연됨을 관찰할 수 있었고, 전도도나 두께를 측정할 때 펄스의 폭이 좁으면 신호의 최대치를 사용하는 것이 유리하고, 펄스의 폭이 넓으면 최대치가 나타나는 시간을 사용하는 것이 판별에 유리하다는 것을 알 수 있었다. 또한, lift-off가 커질수록 PEC 신호의 최대값은 작아지지만, 두 코일 사이의 간격만 일정하면 피검사체가 어디에 위치해도 신호는 거의 동일하며, 같은 두께에서 서로 다른 lift-off 변화는 PEC 신호를 한 점에서 만나게 하는 것을 알 수 있었다.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.15-19
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• 2005

Conventional eddy current testing has been used for the detection of the defect-like fatigue crack in the conductive materials, such as aluminum, which uses a sinusoidal signal with very narrow frequency bandwidth, Whereas, the pulsed eddy current method uses a pulse signal with a broad bandwidth. This can allow multi-frequency eddy current testing, and the penetration depth is greater than that of the conventional eddy current testing. In this work, a pulsed eddy current instrument was developed for evaluating the metal loss. The developed instrument was composed of the pulse generator generating the maximum square pulse voltage of 40V, an amplifier controlled up to 52dB, an A/D converter of 16 bit and the sampling frequency of 20 MHz, and an industrial personal computer operated by the Windows program. A pulsed eddy current probe was designed as a pancake type in which the sensing roil was located inside the driving roil. The output signals of the sensing roil increased rapidly wich the step pulse driving voltage かn off, and the latter part of the sensing coil output voltage decreased exponentially with time. The decrement value of the output signals increased as the thickness of the aluminum test piece increased.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2007.07a
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• pp.888-889
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• 2007

와전류를 이용한 전위강하법은 시험체에 와전류를 비접촉식으로 발생 시킬 수 있어 기존의 방식에 비해 결함 검출시 발생하는 오차를 줄일 수 있고 물체의 결함 검출신호의 신뢰성을 향상 시킬 수 있다. 본 논문에서는 와전류를 이용한 전위강하법의 전자기 유한요소해석을 수행하였다. 3차원 유한요소해석과정에서 해석시간을 단축시키기 위해 각 영역별로 MVP, ESP, RMSP, TMSP의 미지수 변수를 부여하여 유한요소해석을 수행하였다. 기존의 전위강하법에 와전류의 개념을 적용하기 위해서 결함의 깊이와 주파수에 대한 영향을 검토하였다. 정확한 결함검출을 위해 검사과정을 초기검사와 정밀검사로 나누어서 실시하여 결함의 위치를 $\pm$2[mm]까지 도출해 낼 수 있었으며 결함의 폭과 크기도 어느 정도 추측해 낼 수 있었다.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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• 2001.10b
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• pp.1229-1232
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• 2001

코일에 고주파전압을 걸면 교류자계가 발생하며 이 자게 내의 금속재료에 와전류가 발생하는데 와전류는 재료의 재질, 결함, 이종금속, 형상변화 등에 의해 그 발생상태가 다르기 때문에 검출용 코일에서 얻어진 신호성분을 해석함으로써 재료의 비파괴검사가 가능하다. 원자력발전소에서는 증기발생기와 열교환기를 정기적으로 이 와전류 탐상검사를 수행하고 결함상태를 평가하여 그 결과를 대용량 Media에 저장한다. 본 논문에서는 평가결과 정보를 추출하고 변환 처리하여 RDBMS에 입력 관리하는 과정과 다양한 형태의 열교환기 Tubesheet를 편집하는 기능, 사용자의 검색조건 선택에 따라 데이터베이스를 Query하여 Tubesheet에 Mapping 처리하는 기능, 검사주기 및 기기별로 평가결과를 비교 분석할 수 있는 통계/보고서 기기사양정보 및 검사정보관리 등 제반 Application 시스템 구현 결과를 소개한다.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2008.04c
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• pp.53-55
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• 2008

복합층에서 나타나는 투과형 펄스와전류(Pulsed Eddy Current; PEC) 탐상신호를 수치해석 방법을 사용하여 예측하고 분석하였다. 공기층이 없는 복합층에서 Ti-6Al-4V의 두께가 변하는 경우에는 Lift-off를 변화시켰을 때 나타나는 펄스와전류 신호특성과 LOI(Lift-off Intersection)가 형성되는 것을 관찰할 수 있었고, Aluminum의 두께가 변하는 경우에는 Aluminum만의 두께변화 시 발생하던 신호특성이 났다. 공기층이 있는 복합층에서는 Lift-off를 변화시켰을 때 나타나는 신호특성과 LOI가 형성되었고, 공기층이 증가하면 피크 값이 감소하는 것을 볼 수 있었다.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.253-258
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• 2004

To get accurate information about the defect from the test signal, NDT engineers should have a good knowledge on forward problems. Such knowledge is usually obtained by a lot of testing experiences. Another why of obtaining such knowledge is to build a database containing lots of defect information and their corresponding signals. However, the archiving of raw test data would require a lot of storage space. In this paper, an economic way of storing signals is studied by using Fourier descriptors. Instead of saving raw signal data, Fourier descriptors are saved and the storage spare is reduced. Of course, the defect signal can be reconstructed from the stored descriptors. By using differential ECT signals produced by numerical modeling and experiment, the savings of 85% from the original signal and $57{\sim}65%$ from the filtered signal in the storage space were confirmed. The similarity of the reconstructed signal and the original signal was also demonstrated. This Fourier descriptor approach could contribute significantly in building differential signal databases.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.159-165
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• 2008

In this paper the signal analysis of eddy current test using transmit-receive(T/R) pancake coil of ECT array probe using electromagnetic finite element method(FEM) is performed. For characteristics analysis, the notch defect is used. The depth of defect is 40[%] of steam generator tube thickness, and inside defect and outside defect are used as simulation examples. The signal analysis is performed according to the variation of receive coil position. The receive coil is positioned $0[^{\circ}]$, $30[^{\circ}]$, $60[^{\circ}]$, $90[^{\circ}]$ of circumferential position of transmit coil. To obtain e electromagnetic characteristics of robes, the governing equation is derived from Maxwell's equations, and the problem is solved using the 3-dimensional finite element method. The signal magnitude of inside defect is bigger than that of outside defect, and the signal difference can be seen according to the variation of position of receive coil. The experimental signal and numerical signal of ASME standard tube show similar results. The results in this paper can be helpful when the ECT signals from ECT array probe are evaluated and analyzed.