S. Reale et L. Tognarelli, STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY SIGNIFICANCE OF ROUND-ROBIN TESTING TRIALS - APPLICATION TO PISC-III ACTION-3, Nuclear Engineering and Design, 157(1-2), 1995, pp. 257-268
Non-destructive examination (NDE) plays an important role in the safet
y and structural integrity of plant components. Hence there is a need
to assess if NDE will be able to furnish correct information on the st
atus of structures concerning presence, location and sizing of flaws.
It is to provide an experimental basis for such knowledge that NDE rou
nd robin testing trials like the programme for the inspection of steel
components (PISC) carried out. An approach for evaluating NDE results
in their structural integrity significance is presented in this paper
and applied to PISC III Action 3 for assessing capabilities and limit
ations of NDE procedures and techniques. PISC results are processed so
as to allow analyses and comparisons in terms of indices related to s
afety margins. The influence of inspection variables (equipment relate
d parameters and flaw categorizations) and the performance of single t
eams are evaluated and presented in their structural integrity signifi
cance.