We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Optimisation of helical geometry of inspection probe for steam generator tubes of the PFBR.
- Authors
Perumalsamy, G.; Visweswaran, P.; Jagadishan, D.; Winston, S. Joseph; Murugan, S.
- Abstract
The steam generator (SG) tubes of the prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR) located in Kalpakkam, India, need to be periodically inspected using the remote field eddy current (RFEC) technique. During the pre-service inspection of the SG tubes, it was found that the RFEC probes experienced frequent mechanical breakages. To avoid these failures, changes in the existing structural design of the RFEC probe were required. A helical groove design was proposed to obtain a smooth transition in the variation of stress across the probe during the inspection. It was difficult to calculate the flexural stiffness of the proposed helical geometry probe due to the varying cross-section along its length. In this paper, the smearing approach adopted to calculate the stiffness of the RFEC probe and the sensitivity analysis carried out to determine the optimal design of the probe are discussed. A probe was fabricated based on the helical groove design and tested to qualify its suitability for the SG inspection. The RFEC probe with helical grooves was employed for the pre-service inspection of the SG tubes of the PFBR. More than 200 tubes have been inspected using the proposed design and no mechanical failure of the probe has been observed.
- Subjects
INDIA; STEAM generators; LIQUID metal fast breeder reactors; TUBES; EDDY current testing; MECHANICAL failures; STRUCTURAL design
- Publication
Insight: Non-Destructive Testing & Condition Monitoring, 2021, Vol 63, Issue 10, p585
- ISSN
1354-2575
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1784/insi.2021.63.10.585