NONDESTRUCTIVE CHARACTERIZATION OF SA533B1 REACTOR PRESSURE VESSEL MATERIAL
Hou-Lung Lee, Jar-Yarng Kao, Yaw-Dawn Pai and Tai Shern Tang* Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, PO Box 3-14, Lungtan, Taiwan *Nuclear Engineering Department, National Tsing-Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
Keywords: NDT; NDE; material degradation; ultrasonic; Barkhausen
ABSTRACT
Degradation of reactor pressure vessel material is of world-wide concern in consideration of nuclear safety and plant lifetime extension. In practice, the vessel material degradation is usually evaluated by implementation of a surveillance program. Unfortunately, in the surveillance program the vessel material degradation and integrity is evaluated based on measurements of exhaustible test specimens instead of on the vessel itself. As a consequence, locating weak points of the vessel and further characterization are not possible. Although Charpy sample reconstitution technology has been established and replacement of standard Charpy test specimens with small test specimens has been studied, development of a workable and reliable nondestructive method for in-situ investigation of pressure vessel for integrity and material degradation assessment is still being expected. In an attempt to study the potential of ultrasonic and Barkhausen noise analysis methods in this application, some experimental work has been conducted in the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research of Taiwan. This article describes the work and associated results which have been obtained.
Publication Source: Trends in NDE Science & Technology; Proceedings of the 14th World Conference on Non-Destructive Testing, New Delhi, 8-13 December 1996.full paper not received Publisher:Ashgate Publishing Company
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