The Detection of the Steam Generator Tubing Defects in the Sludge Piles by the Eddy Current Testing

과전류탐상법(過電流探傷法)에 의한 Sludge Pile속의 결함검출(缺陷檢出)

In the in-service inspections for the steam generator tubing of the nuclear power plants by the Eddy Current Testing, the ECT signals are evaluated by their phase. If oxidized copper sludge is piled up in the secondary side, however, big sludge signals occur in large quantities which originate from copper layers forming in the sludge piles due to the pitting mechanism of the steam generator tubing by $Cu^{2+}$, and modulate the defect signals, causing the difficulty in the defect detection. In this research, sludge specimens were prepared considering the formations of the sludge signal sources and multi-frequency ECT mixing experiments by different choices of the mixing standards were performed. The results were found to be 5 to 30% of the tube wall thickness over-estimated. Experiments using the ring-type mixing standards showed the least errors of all, while those with the mixing standards nearing the sludge conditions brought larger errors as a result of the influence of the interference between the defect and the copper layers.