• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.85-91
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• 1998

In nuclear fuel manufacturing process, end-closure welding has long been recognized as requiring very high integrity. In this basic study, ECT(eddy current testing) method for end-closure welding has been developed to detect end cap weld discontinuities for nuclear fuel safety. In order to improve the inspection reliability, the maximum scanning speed and the maximum frequency is investigated for end-closure welding inspection. The bandpass filter(0-250Hz) is used for removing noise effects. This study shows that ECT method is effective and sensitive for the detection of small defect(0.35mm diameter).

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.483-489
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• 2016

The typical methods used for inspecting ferromagnetic pipes include the ultrasonic testing (UT) contact method and the following non-contact methods: magnetic flux leakage (MFL), electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMAT), and remote field eddy current testing (RFECT). Among these methods, the RFECT method has the advantage of being able to establish a system smaller than the diameter of a pipe. However, the method has several disadvantages as well, including different sensitivities and difficult-to-repair coil sensors which comprise its array system. Therefore, a giant magneto-resistance (GMR) sensor was applied to address these issues. The GMR sensor is small, easy to replace, and has uniform sensitivity. In this experiment, the GMR sensor was used to measure remote field and defect signal characteristics (in the axial and radial directions) in a ferromagnetic pipe. These characteristics were measured in an effort to investigate standard defects at changing depths within a pipe. The results show that the experiment successfully demonstrated the applicability of the GMR sensor to RFECT signal detection in ferromagnetic pipe.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.137-144
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• 2009

In this paper, the signal analysis of eddy current array probe was performed to analyze the electromagnetic characteristics with the variation of FBH(flat bottomed hole) defects size on steam generator tube in NPP(nuclear power plants) using the electromagnetic finite element method. To obtain the electromagnetic characteristic of probes, the governing equation was derived from Maxwell's equations, and the individual problem was analyzed by using the 3-dimensional finite element method. For the simulation FBH defects were used. The depth of FBH defects were 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% of steam generator(SG) tube thickness, and it was assumed that the defects were located on the tube outside. And the operation frequencies of 100 kHz, 300 kHz and 400 kHz were used. Material of specimen was Inconel 600 which is usually used for SG tubes in NPP. The signal difference could be observed according to the size variation of depth of FBH defects and operation frequencies. The results in this paper can be helpful when the ECT(eddy current testing) signals from EC array probe are evaluated and analyzed.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2007.07a
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• pp.2016-2017
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• 2007

본 논문은 와전류 탐상 시 출력되는 결과를 하나의 디스플레이로 결과를 비교하기 위하여 2D 및 3D의 그래프를 Labview를 통하여 구현하였다. 와전류센서에서 들어오는 아날로그 신호를 효과적으로 제어하여 그 데이터를 수집하고 수집된 데이터를 필요로 하는 결과 값으로 분리하여 분석이 용이하도록 프로그램을 구현하였다. 또한 와전류탐상에 쓰이는 스캐너를 제어함으로써 결함 검출 과정을 보다 쉽게 할 수 있었다. 그 결과로 결함의 위치 및 형태, 종류 등을 판단하는데 도움이 되도록 하였다.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.29-33
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• 1996

The eddy current test(ECT) probe of differential encircling coil type was designed and fabricated, and the optimum condition of ECT was derived for the examination of the irradiated fuel rod. The correlation between ECT test frequency and phase & amplitude was derived by performing the test of the standard rig that includes inner notches, outer notches and through-holes. The defect of through-hole was predicted by ECT at the G33-N2 fuel rod irradiated in the Kori-1 nuclear power reactor. The metallographic examination on the G33-N2 fuel rod was Performed at the defect location predicted by ECT. The result of metallographic examination for the G33-N2 fuel rod was in good agreement with that of ECT. This proves that the evaluation for integrity of irradiated fuel rod by ECT is reliable.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.465-471
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• 2013

A steam generator in nuclear power plant is a heatexchager which is used to convert water into steam from heat produced in a nuclear reactor core, and the steam produced in steam generator is delivered to the turbine to generate electricity. Because of damage to steam generator tubing may impair its ability to adequately perform required safety functions in terms of both structural integrity and leakage integrity, eddy current testing is periodically performed to evaluate the integrity of tubes in steam generator. This assessment is normally performed during a reactor refueling outage. Currently, the eddy current testing for steam generator of nuclear power plant in Korea is performed in accordance with KEPIC & ASME Code requirements, the eddy current testing system is consists of remote data acquisition unit and data analysis program to evaluate the acquired data. The KEPIC & ASME Code require that the electrical properties of remote data acquisition unit, such as total harmonic distortion, input & output impedance, amplifier linearity & stability, phase linearity, bandwidth & demodulation filter response, analog-to-digital conversion, and channel crosstalk shall be measured in accordance with the KEPIC & ASME Code requirements. In this paper, the measurement requirements of electrical properties for eddy current testing instrument described in KEPIC & ASME Code are presented, and the measurement results of newly developed eddy current testing instrument by KHNP(Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., LTD) are presented.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Computer Information Conference
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• 2022.07a
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• pp.659-661
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• 2022

본 논문에서는 4차 산업의 제조 혁신을 위한 새로운 방안의 스마트 팩토리를 실헌하기 위한 주요 부품 중에 하나인 리니어 모션 가이드(LM 가이드)에 필요한 센싱 시스템을 제안하였다. 공장 자동화와 정밀 측의 핵심 부품인 LM 가이드를 고정밀, 고정도로 제어할 수 있는 변위 센싱 시스템의 개발이다. 기존의 광학식이나 자기식 변위 센서 기술의 한계를 극복할 수 있도록 와전류(Eddy Current) 기법을 이용하여 LC 공진기와 전도체를 LM 가이드에 장착할 수 있도록 제안하였다. 또한 와전류 센싱부에서 출력되는 미세 인덕턴스 값을 측정할 수 있도록 디지털 신호처리 기술과 컴퓨터/산술 기술을 FPGA를 이용한 HW 시스템을 제작하여 다양한 실험을 진행했다. 본 논문에서 구현한 HW 센싱 시스템을 이용함으로 LM 가이드를 실시간으로 직선 이동시킴으로 실시간으로 변위 값을 디스플레이 부로 출력되어 측정이 가능하다. 개발된 시스템은 LM 가이드의 직선 운동시 변위 값의 분해능과 응답속도 면에서 우수함이 확인됨으로 스마트 팩토리 뿐만 아니라 다양한 장비에도 적용이 가능하다.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.510-517
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• 2001

This paper describes an initial study for the application of eddy current pattern recognition approaches to more realistic flaw characterization in steam generator tubes. For this purpose, finite-element model-based theoretical eddy current testing (ECT) signals are simulated from 5 types of OD flaws with the variation in flaw size parameters and testing frequency. In addition, three kinds of software are developed for the convenience in the application of steps in pattern recognition approaches such as feature extraction feature selection and classification by probabilistic neural networks (PNNs). The cross point of the ECT signals simulated from flaws with non-symmetric cross-sections shows the deviation from the origin of the impedance plane. New features taking advantages of this phenomenon are added to complete the feature set with a total of 18 features. Then, classification with PNNs are performed based on this feature set. The PNN classifiers show high performance for the identification of symmetry in the cross-section of a flaw. However, they show very limited success in the interrogation of the sharpness of flaw tips.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.191-199
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• 2000

In this paper, a numerical analysis using the finite element method (FEM) is presented which models the eddy current testing (ECT) of tubes with 3-dimensional defects. For the description of 3-dimensional eddy current problems, the governing equation is derived from the Maxwell's equations. The 3-dimensional FEM formulation with hexahedral elements is carried out using the Galerkin weighted residual method. The INCONEL 600 steam generator tube with inner and outer diameter defects is adopted for the numerical analysis, and the ECT signal, which is the trajectory of the probe impedance, is calculated. For the verification of the numerical analysis method, results of numerical calculations and experiments are compared and they show good agreements. Based on this verification, several defect signals are predicted and their characteristics are investigated with the variation in the defect depth and the circumferential angle of the defect.