• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.33 no.4
• /
• pp.57-62
• /
• 2015

Non-destructive techniques are used widely in the metal industry in order to control the quality of materials. Eddy current testing(ECT) is one of the most extensively used non-destructive techniques for inspecting electrically conductive materials at very high speeds that does not require any contact between the test piece and the sensor. The New ECT sensor which can detect inner defects was developed regardless the condition of surface. This sensor is verified to do experiment which measure the loss of induced electromotive force. The loss of induced electromotive force was measured in 5.4% and this low frequency ECT device can detect internal defects at depth 20 mm.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.33 no.4
• /
• pp.63-67
• /
• 2015

Non-destructive techniques are used widely in the metal industry in order to control the quality of materials. Eddy current testing(ECT) is one of the most extensively used non-destructive techniques for inspecting electrically conductive materials at very high speeds that does not require any contact between the test piece and the sensor. The New ECT sensor which can detect inner defects was developed regardless the condition of surface. This sensor is verified to do experiment which measure the loss of induced electromotive force. The loss of induced electromotive force was measured in 5.4% and this low frequency ECT device can detect internal defects at depth 20 mm.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.13-19
• /
• 2015

Steam generator is one of the most important component of nuclear power plant, and it's integrity and reliability are to be assured to high level by pre-service inspection and in-service inspection. To improve the reliability of steam generator heat exchanger tubes and to secure the management of nuclear power plant safely, KHNP CRI recently has developed eddy current testing system for steam generator. KHNP CRI have performed a series of experimental verification and field application to confirm the performance of the developed ECT system in accordance with ASME Code requirements. The ECT system consists of a remote data acquisition unit, an ECT signal acquisition and analysis software, a water chamber robot controller and a probe push-puller. In this paper, we will details of the developed ECT system and the software and their experimental performance. And also we will report the field applying performance and the issues for further steps.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.36 no.4
• /
• pp.295-299
• /
• 2016

Residual foreign objects at the secondary side (top of the tubesheet and tube support plates) of a steam generator are likely to cause a leak by causing wear in the tube. The extent of wear is significantly affected by the material, shape, and size of the foreign object, and the corrosion properties of the tube. The presence of foreign objects at the top of the tubesheet and tube support plates has been identified using remote visual inspection methods such as the foreign object search and retrieval and eddy current test (ECT). The detection of the residual foreign object at the secondary side of a steam generator has limitations that depend on the material properties and the condition of contact with the tube. In this study, which is vertical and horizontal from the upper tubesheet, the corresponding bobbin ECT signals were collected and analyzed to measure its ability to detect foreign objects.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
• /
• v.5 no.2
• /
• pp.7-12
• /
• 2009

The flaws detected by the non-destructive surface test methods shall be sized by means of the volumetric test such as an UT(ultrasonic test) or an ECT(eddy current test) for the purpose of analyzing and repairing them. It is generally known that the ECT is a comparatively effective technique for the small size cracks which are located shallowly from the surface. On this study, the ECT technique was tried to size the depth of the crack-like EDM notches, and it is identified that the ECT is an appropriate depth sizing technique for the shallow cracks less than 3mm in the Martensitic CA6NM material.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.29-33
• /
• 1996

The eddy current test(ECT) probe of differential encircling coil type was designed and fabricated, and the optimum condition of ECT was derived for the examination of the irradiated fuel rod. The correlation between ECT test frequency and phase & amplitude was derived by performing the test of the standard rig that includes inner notches, outer notches and through-holes. The defect of through-hole was predicted by ECT at the G33-N2 fuel rod irradiated in the Kori-1 nuclear power reactor. The metallographic examination on the G33-N2 fuel rod was Performed at the defect location predicted by ECT. The result of metallographic examination for the G33-N2 fuel rod was in good agreement with that of ECT. This proves that the evaluation for integrity of irradiated fuel rod by ECT is reliable.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.330-337
• /
• 2010

In this paper, 3-dimensional electromagnetic numerical analysis is performed about the eddy current(EC) array probe characteristic which is the next generation probe for accurate diagnosis of steam generator(SG) in nuclear power plants(NPPs). ASME(American Society of Mechanical Engineers) Standard and X-probe combo calibration standard tube are selected for acquisition of eddy current testing(ECT) signals and this result of compared with the real test signals for reasonability of result. Based on the analysis result of calibration standard tube, ECT signals that are about the defects of pitting, stress corrosion cracking(SCC), multiple SCC and wear is obtained. Material of specimen was Inconel 600 which is usually used for SG tubes in NPPs. The operation frequency of 300 kHz were used. The signal characteristics could be observed according to the various defects. The results in this paper can be helpful when the ECT signals from EC array probe are evaluated and analyzed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.156-161
• /
• 1997

The eddy current probe was designed for the test of fin tubes that have uneven outer and inner surfaces to enhance the efficiency of heat emission. Because of the surface roughness of the fin tube, it needs much care to detect flaws in the tube employing eddy current test(ECT). We made ECT probes with different coil lengths and performed eddy current test using these probes for artificially flawed specimens. By the fast Fourier transform and digital filtering, signals from these probes were processed to characterize frequency spectra. From the analysis of eddy current signals and their frequency spectra, we concluded that, for the effective testing of the tubes with the fins of 1mm pitch, 4mm coil length gave the highest S/N ratio.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 1997.10a
• /
• pp.1367-1370
• /
• 1997

This paper presents a vision algorithm for finding the centers of steam generator tubes using the generalized symmetry transform, which is used for ECT(Eddy Current Test) of steam generator tubes in nuclear power plants. The geometrical properties of the image representing steam generator tubes shows that they have amost circular or somewhat elliptic appearances and each tube has strong symmetry about its center. So we apply the generalized symmetry transform to finding centers of steam geneator tubes. But applying the generalized symmetry transform itself without any modification gives difficulties in obtaining the exact centers of steam generator tubes. But applying the generalized symmetry transform itself without any modification gives difficulties in obtaining the exact centers of tubes due to the shadow effect generated by the local light installed inside steam generator. Therefore we make the generalized symmetry transform modified, which uses a modified phase weight function in getting the symmetry magnitude in order to overcome the misleading effect by the local light. The experimental results indicate that the proposed vision algorithm efficiently recongnizes centers of steam generator tubes.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
• /
• v.7 no.4
• /
• pp.19-25
• /
• 2011

Steam Generator(SG) tube is an important component of Nuclear Power Plant(NPP), which is the pressure boundary between the primary and secondary systems. The integrity of SG tube has been confirmed by the eddy current test every outage. The eddy current technique adopting bobbin probe is currently the primary technique for the steam generator tubing integrity assesment. 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. Until now, all of the ECT bobbin probes in Korea which is necessary to carry out inspection are imported from overseas. However, KHNP has recently developed the bobbin probe design technology and transferred it to domestic manufacturers to fabricate the probes. This study has been conducted to establish technical requirements applicable to the steam generator tube inspection using the bobbin probes fabricated by the domestic manufactures. The results have been compared with the results obtained by using foreign probe to identify the availability to the steam generator tube inspection. As a result, it is confirmed that the domestic bobbin probe is generally applicable to SG tube inspection in the NPPs.