TY - JOUR
T1 - Application of eddy current inversion technique to the sizing of defects in Inconel welds with rough surfaces
AU - Yusa, Noritaka
AU - MacHida, Eiji
AU - Janousek, Ladislav
AU - Rebican, Mihai
AU - Chen, Zhenmao
AU - Miya, Kenzo
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported in part by six Japanese BWR utilities: Japan Atomic Power Company, Tohoku Electric Power, Hokuriku Electric Power Company, Tokyo Electric Power Company, Chubu Electric Power Company, and Chugoku Electric Power Company. The authors thank Hiroshi Iwami for technical advice on the fabrication of the specimen. The stub tube model whose picture is shown in Fig. 1 belongs to the Chubu Electric Power Company.
PY - 2005/6
Y1 - 2005/6
N2 - This paper evaluates the applicability of eddy current inversion techniques to the sizing of defects in Inconel welds with rough surfaces. For this purpose, a plate Inconel weld specimen, which models the welding of a stub tube in a boiling water nuclear reactor is fabricated, and artificial notches machined into the specimen. Eddy current inspections using six different eddy current probes are conducted and efficiencies were evaluated for the six probes for weld inspection. It is revealed that if suitable probes are applied, an Inconel weld does not cause large noise levels during eddy current inspections even though the surface of the weld is rough. Finally, reconstruction of the notches is performed using eddy current signals measured using the uniform eddy current probe that showed the best results among the six probes in this study. A simplified configuration is proposed in order to consider the complicated configuration of the welded specimen in numerical simulations. While reconstructed profiles of the notches are slightly larger than the true profiles, quite good agreements are obtained in spite of the simple approximation of the configuration, which reveals that eddy current testing would be an efficient non-destructive testing method for the sizing of defects in Inconel welds.
AB - This paper evaluates the applicability of eddy current inversion techniques to the sizing of defects in Inconel welds with rough surfaces. For this purpose, a plate Inconel weld specimen, which models the welding of a stub tube in a boiling water nuclear reactor is fabricated, and artificial notches machined into the specimen. Eddy current inspections using six different eddy current probes are conducted and efficiencies were evaluated for the six probes for weld inspection. It is revealed that if suitable probes are applied, an Inconel weld does not cause large noise levels during eddy current inspections even though the surface of the weld is rough. Finally, reconstruction of the notches is performed using eddy current signals measured using the uniform eddy current probe that showed the best results among the six probes in this study. A simplified configuration is proposed in order to consider the complicated configuration of the welded specimen in numerical simulations. While reconstructed profiles of the notches are slightly larger than the true profiles, quite good agreements are obtained in spite of the simple approximation of the configuration, which reveals that eddy current testing would be an efficient non-destructive testing method for the sizing of defects in Inconel welds.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.nucengdes.2005.01.005
DO - 10.1016/j.nucengdes.2005.01.005
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:19144363215
SN - 0029-5493
VL - 235
SP - 1469
EP - 1480
JO - Nuclear Engineering and Design
JF - Nuclear Engineering and Design
IS - 14
ER -