• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.356-361
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• 2014

The eddy current testing performance directly affects the results of a steam generator tube integrity assessment because the integrity assessment of defected tubes is conducted based on eddy current testing results. This means that it may not be possible to accurately discriminate between adjacent flaws. This paper presents an investigation on the resolution of rotating pancake coils with multiple cracks and the effects on the structural integrity assessment of steam generator tubes.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.1813-1821
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• 2004

Until now, the 40% of wall thickness criterion, which is generally used for the plugging of steam generator tubes, has been applied only to a single cracked geometry. In the previous study by the authors, a total number of 9 local failure prediction models were introduced to estimate the coalescence load of two collinear through-wall cracks and, then, the reaction force model and plastic zone contact model were selected as the optimum ones. The objective of this study is to estimate the coalescence load of two collinear through-wall cracks in steam generator tube by using the optimum local failure prediction models. In order to investigate the applicability of the optimum local failure prediction models, a series of plastic collapse tests and corresponding finite element analyses for two collinear through-wall cracks in steam generator tube were carried out. Thereby, the applicability of the optimum local failure prediction models was verified and, finally, a coalescence evaluation diagram which can be used to determine whether the adjacent cracks detected by NDE coalesce or not has been developed.