• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.40-47
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• 2013

The capacity factor of nuclear power plant in Korea is the highest level in the world. However, the integrity assessment of nuclear power plant is depended on foreign country. Especially, most eddy current testing systems for inspecting steam generators in nuclear power plant are currently imported from USA, Canada, and so on. Therefore, the eddy current testing system can react more active and adaptive from economic and managerial standpoint for actual nuclear power plants in Korea is required. In this paper, an eddy current testing system for inspecting steam generators in nuclear power plants is introduced. Frequency generator, analog circuit, analog digital converter circuit, and digital control circuit are composed in eddy current testing system. A benchmarking of acquisition system and acquisition software, eddynet 11i made by Zetec, and modifications are carried out based on the test environment of Korea nuclear power plants. Finally, all eddy current apparatus are integrated to inspect steam generator tubes in nuclear power plants.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.13-19
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• 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
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.253-258
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• 2004

To get accurate information about the defect from the test signal, NDT engineers should have a good knowledge on forward problems. Such knowledge is usually obtained by a lot of testing experiences. Another why of obtaining such knowledge is to build a database containing lots of defect information and their corresponding signals. However, the archiving of raw test data would require a lot of storage space. In this paper, an economic way of storing signals is studied by using Fourier descriptors. Instead of saving raw signal data, Fourier descriptors are saved and the storage spare is reduced. Of course, the defect signal can be reconstructed from the stored descriptors. By using differential ECT signals produced by numerical modeling and experiment, the savings of 85% from the original signal and $57{\sim}65%$ from the filtered signal in the storage space were confirmed. The similarity of the reconstructed signal and the original signal was also demonstrated. This Fourier descriptor approach could contribute significantly in building differential signal databases.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.407-415
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• 2008

The tubes in heat exchanger are typically made from copper alloy, stainless steel, carbon steel, titanium alloy material. type-439 ferritic stainless steel is ferromagnetic material, and furnish higher heat transfer rates than austenitic stainless steels and higher resistance to corrosion-induced flaws. Ferritic stainless steel can typically be found in low-pressure(LP) feedwater heaters and moisture separator reheaters(MSRs). LP feedwater heaters generally utilize thin wall type-439 stainless steel tubing, whereas MSRs typically employ a heavier wall tubing with integral fins. Service-induced damage can occur on the OD(outside diameter) surface of type-439 ferritic stainless steel tubing which is employed for MSRs tubing, and the most typical damage mechanism is vibration-induced tube-to-TSP(tube support plate) wear and fatigue cracking. The wear has been reported that occurs mainly on the OD surface. Accordingly, in this study, we have evaluated the flaw sizing capability of magnetic saturation eddy current technique using magnetic saturation probe and flawed specimen.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.305-308
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• 2006

Magnetic flux leakage (MFL) pigs are traditionally used for the detection of gross corrosion on steel pipelines used for the transmission of natural gas. Alternative nondestructive evaluation (NDE) modalities are required for the detection of stress corrosion cracking (SCC) which tends to exist in colonies oriented axially along the length of the pipeline. This paper describes the use of multiphase rotating magnetic fields in the remote region of the probe as a possible SCC detection mechanism. Details of a prototype pig and test rig are given and the challenges associated with the finite element modeling of the device are discussed. Initial experimental results show that this novel NDE modality is sensitive to axially oriented tight cracks.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.407-414
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• 1995

원자력발전소의 주요 기기들에 대한 가동중검사는 관련법규에 따라 철저히 수행되고 있다. 그러나 최근 선진국에서는 이에 만족하지 않고 원전 기기의 안전성을 더욱 확고히 하기 위해 기존의 가동중검사 요건을 계속 강화하고 있으며, 원전 관련 당사자들은 강화된 요건들을 충족시키기 위한 노력을 끊임없이 계속하고 있다. 이 글에서는 원전 기기 가동중검사 신규 요건들인 초음파탐상검사 시스템의 기량검증(Performance Demonstration) 요건, 비파괴검사자 및 초음파검사자 자격 인정 요건(ANSI/ASNT CP-189, Appendix VII of ASME Sec. XI), 증기발생기 전열관 와전류검사, 신호평가자 자격인정(Qualified Data Analyst : QDA), 미국규제기관(NRC)에서 발행하고 있는 NRC Bulletin, NRC information 등의 가동중검사 관련 사항들을 살펴보고 선진 외국에서는 이들 요건 및 정보에 대해 어떻게 대처하고 있는가를 알아본다. 또한 국내에서도 이들 신규 요건에 대한 대처 현황과 대처 방안을 모색한다.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.83-88
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• 2010

Domestic nuclear steam generators with Alloy 600 HTMA tubes have experienced axial cracking at eggcrate tube support plates(TSPs). The axial stress corrosion cracks were observed at the crevice between outside of tubes and eggcrate TSPs. The root cause of axial cracking was investigated by thermal hydraulic analysis and sludge distribution diagnosis. It is suggested that deposition of sludge at eggcrate TSPs could increase the outside surface temperature of tube and promote the enrichment of impurities at crevice, and thus accelerate cracking. Additionally strategy for reducing the sludge ingress to steam generators is discussed.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.7-12
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• 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
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.37-41
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• 1989

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the effect of wobble and nonconcentricity of tubes or rods in eddy current test with encircling test coils. Because the eddy current induced in a sample is related to the total magnetic flux linkages, the information about magnetic field distribution in a coil is important. In theoretical study, magnetic field distribution in a single turn coil was calculated and variation of impedance according to the difference of sample positions was presumed. Magnetic field intensity at inside of a solenoidal coil was measured and compared with the theoretical estimation. In experiment, impedance loci of a coil encircling an aluminum rod were measured at different sample positions. The effect of crack positions was examined at same sample positons.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.25-32
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• 2015

Many crack flaws have been detected at tubing seal weld zone in Steam Generator with Alloy600 material tubes. it is very difficult to discriminate the signal from parent material and that from weld zone because weld zone gives complicated ECT signal due to manufacturing processes. ECT signal analysis in the seal weld zone is very important since the tubes with crack in this area shall be out of service by plugging. The purpose of this paper is to distinguish between Parent material and Weld Zone ECT signal in the seal weld zone through the demonstration test of Steam Generator seal weld mock-up.