APPLICATION OF NUMERICAL-ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES TO EDDY-CURRENT TESTING FOR STEAM-GENERATOR TUBES

This paper describes the application of numerical analysis to eddy cur rent testing (ECT) for steam generator tubes. A symmetrical and three- dimensional sinusoidal steady state eddy current analysis code was dev eloped. This code is formulated by future element method-boundary elem ent method coupling techniques, in order not to regenerate the mesh da ta in the tube domain at every movement of the probe. The calculations were carried out under various conditions including those for various probe types, defect orientations and so on. Compared with the experim ental data, it was shown that it is feasible to apply this code to act ual use. Furthermore, we have developed a total eddy current analysis system which consists of an ECT calculation code, an automatic mesh ge nerator for analysis, a database and display software for calculated r esults.