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Development of Ultrasonic Waveguide Sensor for Under=Sodium Viewing in Liquid Metal Reactor  

Joo, Young-Sang (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute)
Lee, Jae-Han (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute)
Publication Information
Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing / v.26, no.1, 2006 , pp. 18-24 More about this Journal
Abstract
Reactor core and internal structures of a liquid metal reactor (LMR) can not be visually examined due to an opaque liquid sodium. The under-sodium viewing technique by using an ultrasonic wave should be applied far the visual inspection of reactor internals. In this study, an ultrasonic waveguide sensor with a strip plate has been developed for an application to the under-sodium viewing technique. The Lamb wave propagation of a waveguide sensor has been analyzed and the zero-order antisymmetric $A_0$ plate wave was selected as the application mode of the sensor. The $A_0$ plate wave can be propagated in the dispersive low frequency range by using a liquid wedge clamped to the waveguide. A new technique is presented which is capable of steering the radiation beam angle of a waveguide sensor without a mechanical movement of the sensor assembly The steering function of the ultrasonic radiation beam can be achieved by a frequency tuning method of the excitation pulse in the dispersive range of the $A_0$ mode. The technique provides an opportunity to overcome the scanning limitation of a waveguide sensor. The beam steering function has been evaluated by an experimental verification. The ultrasonic C-scanning experiments are performed in water and the feasibility of the ultrasonic waveguide sensor has been verified.
Keywords
liquid metal reactor; in-service inspection; under sodium viewing; waveguide sensor; leaky Lamb wave;
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