• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1999.07a
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• pp.290-292
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• 1999

핵연료봉이나 제어봉과 같은 봉구조물의 검사를 위하여 원격장와전류 효과를 낼 수 있는 탐촉자를 설계하고 탐상주파수를 유한요소해석을 통해 설정하였다. 핵연료봉을 대상으로 한 해석에서 exciter coil 주변을 차폐하고 500kHz의 주파수를 사용한 결과 전위계곡과 위상매듭의 존재가 나타나 원격장와전류 효과가 구현되었음을 확인하였다. exciter와 sensor coil로 이루어진 탐촉자를 이동시키면서 예측한 탐상신호에서는 센서를 원격장 의치에 고정시켰을 때, 결함이 센서를 지날 때의 위상신호와 결함이 exciter를 지날 때의 위상신호가 서로 달리 나타났다. 또한, 외부결함과 내부결함이 센서를 지날 때의 위상지연은 작지만 서로 반대의 경향으로 나타났으며, 두 종류의 결함이 exciter를 지날 때는 위상지연이 상대적으로 크게 줄어들고 외부/내부 결함에 상관없이 신호가 비슷하게 나타남을 볼 수 있었다. 이러한 신호형태는 자성체 관의 탐상에서 내, 외부 결함신호가 구별이 안되고, 동일한 위상신호가 항상 쌍으로 나타나는 것과 비교할 때, 신호해석을 훨씬 수월하게 해 줄 수 있을 것이라고 판단된다.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.518-525
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• 2001

As steam generator (SG) tubes have aged, new and subtle flaws have appeared. Most of them start growing from outside the tubes. Since signals from outer diameter (OD) defects are very weak compared to those from inner diameter (ID) defects in the conventional eddy current testing due to skin effect, this paper studies the feasibility of using remote field eddy current (RFEC) technique, which has shown equal sensitivity to ID and OD defects in the ferromagnetic pipe inspection. Finite element modeling studies show that the operating frequency needs to be increased up to a few hundred kHz in order for RFEC effects to occur in the nonmagnetic SG tube. The proper distance between exciter and sensor coils is also found to be about 1.5 OD, which is half the distance used in the ferromagnetic pipe inspection. Defect signals obtained by the designed RFEC probe show equal sensitivity to ID and OD defects and the existence of linear relationship between defect depth and phase signal strength. These results tell us that RFEC inspection is feasible even in nonmagnetic steam generator tubes.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.650-657
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• 2001

This paper explains the process of designing a shielded encircling remote field eddy current (RFEC) probe to inspect nuclear fuel cladding tubes and investigates resulting signal characteristics. To force electromagnetic energy from exciter coil to penetrate into the tube, exciter coil is shielded outside by laminations of iron insulated electrically from each other. Effects of shielding and the proper operating frequency are studied by the finite element analysis and the location for sensor coil is decided. However, numerically simulated signals using the designed probe do not clearly show the defect indication when the sensor passes a defect and the other indication appeared as the exciter passes the defect is affected by the shape of shielding structure, which demonstrates that the sensor is directly affected by exciter fields. For this reason, the sensor is also shielded outside and this shielding dramatically improves signal characteristics. Numerical modeling with the finally designed probe shows very similar signal characteristics to those of inner diameter RFEC probe. That is, phase signals show almost equal sensitivity to inner diameter and outer diameter defects and the linear relationship between phase signal strength and defect depth is observed.