Method of processing steam generator tubes of nuclear power plant
AssigneeWestinghouse Electric Corp.
InventorQui V. Le
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An improved method of inspecting the tubes of a steam generator of a nuclear reactor involves collecting historic data regarding the tube sheet transition regions of each tube for use during a subsequent analysis to create a new simpler signal from which historic artifacts have been removed.
Claims14
A method of employing at least one robotically controlled eddy current sensor and at least one digital computing device to non-destructively assess a current condition of a number of tubes of a steam generator of a nuclear power plant, the method comprising:
- collecting at a first time with a digital computing device and using an eddy current sensor received in and robotically advanced through each of at least some of the number of tubes a historic data set at a tube sheet transition for each of at least some of the number of tubes;
- collecting at a second time with a digital computing device and using an eddy current sensor received in each of at least some of the number of tubes and robotically advanced therethrough a current data set at the tube sheet transition for each of at least some of the number of tubes;
- and
- employing a digital computing device and at least a portion of the historic data set together with a corresponding at least portion of the current data set to suppress from the current data set aspects of the tube sheet transition that were present in the historic data set and to generate another data set representative of a change in condition of a tube of the number of tubes between the first time and the second time.
A method of characterizing an initial condition of a number of tubes of a steam generator of a nuclear power plant, the method comprising:
- collecting at a first time with an eddy current sensor received in and robotically advanced through each of at least some of the number of tubes a historic data set at a tube sheet transition for each of at least some of the number of tubes;
- and
- storing with a digital computing device connected with the eddy current sensor the historic data set for future comparison with a current data set at the tube sheet transition for each of at least some of the number of tubes collected at a second time to suppress from the current data set aspects of the tube sheet transition that were present in the historic data set and to generate another data set representative of a change in condition of a tube of the number of tubes between the first time and the second time.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.