One of the basic activities of the laboratory is the Non Destructive Inspection (NDT), mainly for nuclear plants.. The need to upgrade existent application, such as the eddycurrent inspection of rod cluster control assemblies (RCCA), invoked a new approach. Indeed, Eddy Current and ultrasonic non-destructive, from small laboratory to on site industrial applications, are generally performed by dedicated, ready to use devices. Modifications for specific acquisition or analysis requirements can only be performed by the manufacturer. This often results in difficult to estimate financial and time efforts.
With the increasing power and ergonomic window based software of personal computers, as well as the growing list of available interfaces and drivers, most of measuring devices can be replaced by 'virtual instruments'.
Laborelec has developed and field tested an application based on this methodology. The use of a graphical programming language specifically developed for programming measuring acquisitions and analysis was the basis of the application. Through an industrial interface, eddy current and ultrasonic data can be handled on almost all available PC's, from lap to desktop.
One of the applications consist of analysing eddy current signals for diagnosing the status of the RCCA rodlets.. These spider like assemblies are during normal operation located above the fuel elements of the reactor core. They are inserted in the core in order to shutdown the core activity. They are therefore essential to safety operate the power plant.
The major benefits of this original approach are a quick time to market period, on line software documentation and a limited human effort. Thereby, the acquired experience can easily be transposed to other data analysis or acquisition applications increasing the cost benefits.
Other applications within the scope of Laborelec are already started and will be field tested soon.
Abstract Source:
Book of Abstracts, 7th European Conference on Non-Destructive Testing, 26-29 May 1998, ISBN: 87-986898-0-00
Full-Text Source:
Proceedings of the 7th European Conference on Non-Destructive Testing, 26-29 May 1998, ISBN:
Publication Contact:
7th ECNDT, Park Alle 345, DK-2605 Broendby, Denmark, Fax: +45 46 26 70 11, Email: 101373.3414@compuserve.com
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