• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.19-25
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• 2011

Steam Generator(SG) tube is an important component of Nuclear Power Plant(NPP), which is the pressure boundary between the primary and secondary systems. The integrity of SG tube has been confirmed by the eddy current test every outage. The eddy current technique adopting bobbin probe is currently the primary technique for the steam generator tubing integrity assesment. The bobbin probe is one of the essential components which consist of the whole ECT examination system and provides us a decisive data for the evaluation of tube integrity. Until now, all of the ECT bobbin probes in Korea which is necessary to carry out inspection are imported from overseas. However, KHNP has recently developed the bobbin probe design technology and transferred it to domestic manufacturers to fabricate the probes. This study has been conducted to establish technical requirements applicable to the steam generator tube inspection using the bobbin probes fabricated by the domestic manufactures. The results have been compared with the results obtained by using foreign probe to identify the availability to the steam generator tube inspection. As a result, it is confirmed that the domestic bobbin probe is generally applicable to SG tube inspection in the NPPs.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.1159-1167
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• 2011

A novel 3D tube scanning technique is proposed. The proposed tube scanning technique is developed for a special tube inspection module which consists of four line-lasers and one camera. Using the scanning module, we can reconstruct the 360 degree shapes of the inner surfaces of a cylindrical tube. From an image frame captured by the camera, we reconstruct a partial tube model based on four laser triangulations. Then by aligning such partial models with respect to a reference tube axis, a complete 3D shape of the tube is reconstructed. The tube axis in each reconstructed frame is aligned with a 3D Euclidean transformation to the reference axis. Several experiments show that the proposed method can align multiple tube axes very accurately and reconstruct 3D shapes of a tube with very low shape distortion.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.25-31
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• 2009

Steam Generator(SG) tube is an important component of Nuclear Power Plant(NPP), which comprises of the pressure boundary of primary system. The integrity of SG tube has been confirmed by the eddy current test every outage. In Korea, Bobbin probe and MRPC probe have been generally used for the eddy current test. Meanwhile the usage of Array probe has gradually increased in U.S., Japan and other countries. In this study, we investigated the defect detection capability of the Array probe through its preliminary application to SG tube inspection. The Array probe has the equivalent capability in the defect detection and sizing as the conventional methods. Thus it is desirable that the Array probe is generally applied to SG tube inspection in the domestic NPPs.

• 한국정보통신설비학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.08a
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• pp.241-245
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• 2006

In the examination of Steam Generator (SG) tube in Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) Eddy Current Testing (ECT) probes play an Important role in detecting the defects. Bobbin probe and Rotating Pancake Coil (RPC) probe is usually used for the inspection of SG tube. Bobbin probe is good at high speed inspection, but ability of detection of circumferential defect is very weak. On the contrary RPC probe, which moves for inspection in the direction of axial and circumferential simultaneously, has very slow inspection speed, but it was excellent detection capability fur small cracks, which is hardly detected by bobbin probe. Many examinations of SG tube examination of NPP are achieved during short period. Therefore, solution about this must develop probe of new form for examination performance and examination time shortening of other probe. In this paper, analyzed technological present condition of Bob-bin probe and RPC probe been using in Nondestructive Testing (NDT) for SG tube defect detection and Appeared about background theory and view of developed probe newly.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.239-262
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• 2010

Tube Lines has carried out a "knowledge and investigation programme" on the deep tube tunnels comprising the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines, as required by the PPP contract with London Underground. Many of the tunnels have been in use for over 100 years, so this assessment was considered essential to the future safe functioning of the system. This programme has involved a number of generic investigations which guide the assessment methodology and the analysis of some 5,000 individual structures. A significant amount of investigation has been carried out, including ultrasonic thickness measurement, detection of brickwork laminations using radar, stress measurement using magnetic techniques, determination of soil parameters using CPT, pressuremeter and laboratory testing, installation of piezometers, material and tunnel segment testing, and trialling of remote photographic techniques for inspection of large tunnels and shafts. Vibrating wire, potentiometer, electro level, optical and fibre-optic monitoring has been used, and laser measurement and laser scanning has been employed to measure tunnel circularity. It is considered that there is scope for considerable improvements in non-destructive testing technology for structural assessment in particular, and some ideas are offered as a "wish-list". Assessment reports have now been produced for all assets forming Tube Lines' deep tube tunnel network. For assets which are non-compliant with London Underground standards, the risk to the operating railway has to be maintained as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP) using enhanced inspection and monitoring, or repair where required. Monitoring techniques have developed greatly during recent years and further advances will continue to support the economic whole life asset management of infrastructure networks.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.60-67
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• 2016

A pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR) designed to refuel in service produces the energy required by nuclear fission. The fuel channel consists of components such as a pressure tube which directly contacts the fuel and is a passage for the reactor coolant, a calandria tube which contacts the moderator and is rolled joint with calandria, and a spacer which is not to contact the pressure tube and a calandria tube. As the fuel channel is one of the most important equipments, it requires accurate and periodic inspections to assess the integrity of a reactor in accordance with CSA N285.4. A fuel channel inspection system is developed to inspect fuel channels during in-service inspection in Wolsong unit. In this paper, the results and considerations of a field test are presented in order to show the effectiveness of the developed fuel channel inspection system.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.11b
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• pp.859-866
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• 2001

During the Pre-service Inspection for Wolsong Unit 3&4 in 1997/1998 respectively, 17 Distorted Roll Transition indications(over expanded beyond tubesheet secondary face) were identified at the Unit 4 (S/G B, D). Six(6) tubes out of these tubes were plugged in 1998. However the first Periodic Inspection identified additional 110 indications in 1999 and 2000. The additionally identified 110 indication call, not reported at the Pre-service Inspection, are; 2 Not-Finally-Expanded-Tubes and 108 Distorted Roll Transition tubes. Design limit of each Steam Generator tube Plugging is 6.4%. Plugging was performed by the Steam Generator manufacturer under the warranty. When Distorted Roll Transition indications were first identified on the Unit 4 in 1998 the degree of Over-expansion was measured using an inner dial-gage to make the disposition of Nonconformance report. 2 Not-Finally-Expanded-Tubes were plugged and 10 tubes out of 108 Distorted Roll Transition Tubes were also plugged as a preventive measure.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.789-792
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• 2003

Pipe inspection has a great importance to ensure safety for the nuclear power plant. In this paper, we designed visual inspection module for the tube internal, which diameter is 15${\sim}$20mm. And we made inspection module which consisted of CCD camera and light. And the relation between image and real world coordinate is established. Image processing is performed to calculate mapping parameter and analyze the size of defect. For the calculation of mapping parameter, experiment is performed using grid type test pattern. Acquired image is processed to extract image coordinate. Edge detection, thresholding, median filtering and morphology filtering is applied to extract grid pattern. Extracted image coordinate is used to calculate image to real world mapping. Lens distortion was considered and corrected to get exact data. Coordinate transformation data is provided for the users to recognize easily. Experiment was performed using grid type test pattern, we extracted lens distortion parameter and real coordinate of defect point. Radial distortion of lens was corrected but tangential distortion was not considered. As continuum to this study, the tangential distortion of lens is considered and improvement of analy zing technique for the tube internal be explored continuously.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.1374-1381
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• 2022

Under the influence of nuclear radiation, the reliability of steam generators (SGs) is an important factor in the efficiency and safety of nuclear power plant (NPP) reactors. Motion planning that remotely manipulates an SG mobile tube-inspection robot to inspect SG heat transfer tubes is the mainstream trend of NPP robot development. To achieve motion planning, conditional traversal is usually used for base position optimization, and then the A^* algorithm is used for path planning. However, the proposed approach requires considerable processing time and has a single expansion during path planning and plan paths with many turns, which decreases the working speed of the robot. Therefore, to reduce the calculation time and improve the efficiency of motion planning, modifications such as the matrix method, improved parent node, turning cost, and improved expanded node were proposed in this study. We also present a comprehensive evaluation index to evaluate the performance of the improved algorithm. We validated the efficiency of the proposed method by planning on a tube sheet with square-type tube arrays and experimenting with Model SG.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.2004-2011
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• 2004

The applicability of the ultrasonic C-scan inspection is restricted due to the deterioration of mechanical properties of specimen during the test. Therefore, the aim of this research is applied to Eddy Current (EC) test substitute for the C-scan inspection in CFRP tube containing defects. This research is to evaluate the EC signals for the inspection of CFRP tube containing various circular hole defects (20% to 100% depth to the specimen thickness) using the unloading specimen and radial loading specimen. This study was considered the following points; 1) Analysis of EC signals for the inspection of saw-cut defect and circular hole defect, 2) The evaluation of defect depths and EC signals relationship. 3) Variation of EC signal owing to the radial load. In conclusions, the high frequency such as 300∼500 kHz made it possible to the inspection of 40% to 100% defects. Particularly, in case of 20% defect, the EC signal was not detected due to the noise of micro-crack and delamination. While the depth of the hole defects were decreasing, the difference of the phase angle between unloading specimen and radial loading specimen was gradually increasing.