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US 4,394,345 AGranted
Ultrasonic method and apparatus
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsJohn G. De Briere, Mary M. Lemanowicz, David L. Richardson, Willem Vanderputten
Life of this patent
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AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsJohn G. De Briere, Mary M. Lemanowicz, David L. Richardson, Willem Vanderputten
Estimating the term…
An ultrasonic transducer apparatus and method for examining nuclear reactor jet pump beams for cracking. Examination is conducted in situ. An operator lowers a carriage portion of the apparatus into the reactor vessel with a pole. Ultrasonic signals are transmitted through suitable wiring from an external source to the transducer apparatus, which may employ a pitch-catch or pulse-echo mode of ultrasonic examination to test the beams. The carriage holds oppositely disposed pairs of ultrasonic transducers and positions them suitably near the beam to be examined in a proper orientation thereto. The mode of examination is selected by a switching mechanism. The apparatus includes a signal generator, receiver, and visual display.
An apparatus for detecting cracks in the jet pump beam of a jet pump arrangement of a nuclear reactor, wherein said arrangement includes a downwardly directed jet pump having a nozzle for receiving pressurized driving water, a riser pipe positioned adjacent said jet pump for supplying said driving water, a pipe elbow connecting the top of said riser pipe to the inlet of said nozzle, and a removable jet pump beam assembly, including a jet pump beam bearing on said elbow to hold said elbow in place, said apparatus comprising an ultrasonic signal production means, and communicating means for communicating said signals from said production means to and from a jet pump beam, said communicating means being straddlingly mountable over a jet pump beam, and said ultrasonic signals being directionally oriented toward the upper surface of said jet pump beam, whereby incipient cracks appearing on said surface are timely ultrasonically detectable.
An apparatus for detecting cracks in the jet pump beam of a jet pump arrangement of a nuclear reactor, wherein said arrangement includes a downwardly directed jet pump having a nozzle for receiving pressurized driving water, a riser pipe positioned adjacent said jet pump for supplying said driving water, a pipe elbow connecting the top of said riser pipe to the inlet of said nozzle, and a removable jet pump beam assembly including a jet pump beam bearing on said elbow to hold said elbow in place, said apparatus comprising:
An apparatus for detecting cracks in the jet pump beams of a jet pump arrangement of a nuclear reactor, wherein said arrangement includes a downwardly directed jet pump having a nozzle for receiving pressurized driving water, a riser pipe positioned adjacent said jet pump for supplying said driving water, a pipe elbow connecting the top of said riser pipe to the inlet of said nozzle, and a removable jet pump beam assembly, including a jet pump beam bearing on said elbow to hold said elbow in place, said apparatus comprising:
The method of examining the upper surface of a jet pump beam for incipient cracks, including the steps of remotely positioning a plurality of ultrasonic transducers near the jet pump beam while installed in a nuclear reactor, sending an ultrasonic signal toward the upper surface of said jet pump beam, receiving a portion of said signal, and visually displaying the received portion of the signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.