An Automated System for Detection of Through-Wall Cracks in Racks in Steam Generator Tubes

Through-wall axial cracks occurred by primary water stress corrosion are one of the serious defects in steam generator (SG) tubes (made of alloy 600) in pressurized water reactors. Therefore, it is necessary to detect and size them by eddy current testing (ECT) conducted during in-service inspection of SG tubes. To address this issue, it has been recently proposed an effective method, namely „M-shape profile“ approach, which relies on the difference in the amplitude between the pancake and plus point coils in a MRPC probe. Even though the M-shape curve approach is straightforward in principle, it requires time-consuming data processing if performed by human operators. In order to get rid of this tedious task, an automated system is developed in the present work. This paper addresses the principle of the M-shape approach together with the automated system and its performances for the detection of natural axial cracks in SG tubes. The results observed in the present work demonstrate the high potential of the developed system as a very promising tool for detecting through-wall cracks in many practical field applications.