• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.364-371
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• 2008

Ultrasonic waveguide sensor has been developed for under-sodium viewing of reactor internal structures of a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR). The structure design concept of a waveguide sensor assembly was suggested and evaluated for the application in SFR. A 10 m long ultrasonic waveguide sensor assembly has been manufactured and the experimental feasibility tests were carried out. The 10 m long distance propagation performance of zero-order antisymmetric $A_0$ Lamb wave has been verified. The feasibility of ultrasonic waveguide sensor has been demonstrated by the C-scanning resolution performance test.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.18-24
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• 2006

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.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.338-344
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• 2010

A double rotation C-scanning system and a software program Under-Sodium MultiVIEW have been developed for the under-sodium viewing of a reactor core and in-vessel structures of a sodium-cooled fast reactor KALIMER-600. Double rotation C-scanning system has been designed and manufactured by the reproduction of double rotation plug of a reactor head in KALIMER-600. Hardware system which consists of a double rotating scanner, ultrasonic waveguide sensors, a high power ultrasonic pulser-receiver, a scanner driving module and a multi channel A/D board have been constructed. The functions of scanner control, image mapping and signal processing of Under-Sodium MultiVIEW program have been implemented by using a LabVIEW graphical programming language. The performance of Under-Sodium MultiVIEW program was verified by a double rotation C-scanning test in water.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.1285-1286
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• 2004

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.48-57
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• 2015

In a sodium-cooled fast reactor, which is a Generation-IV reactor, refueling is conducted by rotating, but not opening, the reactor head to prevent a reaction between the sodium, water and air. Therefore, an inspection technique that checks for the presence of any obstacles between the reactor core and the upper internal structure, which could disturb the rotation of the reactor head, is essential prior to the refueling of a sodium-cooled fast reactor. To this end, an ultrasound-based inspection technique should be employed because the opacity of the sodium prevents conventional optical inspection techniques from being applied to the monitoring of obstacles. In this study, a ranging inspection technique using a plate-type ultrasonic waveguide sensor was developed to monitor the presence of any obstacles between the reactor core and the upper internal structure in the opaque sodium. Because the waveguide sensor installs an ultrasonic transducer in a relatively cold region and transmits the ultrasonic waves into the hot radioactive liquid sodium through a long waveguide, it offers better reliability and is less susceptible to thermal or radiation damage. A 10 m horizontal beam waveguide sensor capable of radiating an ultrasonic wave horizontally was developed, and beam profile measurements and basic experiments were carried out to investigate the characteristics of the developed sensor. The beam width and propagation distance of the ultrasonic wave radiated from the sensor were assessed based on the experimental results. Finally, a feasibility test using cylindrical targets (corresponding to the shape of possible obstacles) was also conducted to evaluate the applicability of the developed ranging inspection technique to actual applications.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2012.04a
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• pp.743-744
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• 2012