Gamma-ray CT probes power plant piping
This article describes how engineers are using penetrating gamma rays to examine power plant steam pipes for signs of erosion, corrosion, and weld flaws. Using computed tomography techniques, the new nondestructive testing tool may help electric utilities cut the high cost of piping inspections. High-energy pipes in the main steam and reheat lines of power-generating plants are subject to severe operating conditions in which high temperatures and stresses combine with corrosion, erosion, and vibration to degrade the steel pipes and the welds that join them. Regular life-extension examinations of critical points on steam pipes using conventional non-destructive evaluation (NDE) techniques, followed by estimation of mean-time-to-failure predictions, is key to avoiding pipe failures and the expensive plant outages they engender. Widely used life-assessment procedures include frequent visual checks, mechanical dimensional gauging, and NDE techniques that use magnetic particles, dye penetrants, eddy currents, x-ray and gamma-ray radiography, and ultrasonics. Seeking an improved and more cost-effective alternative for power plant pipe inspection, experts in nuclear physics and digital imaging have developed a high-energy gamma-ray scanning device that can locate tiny incipient flaws and other piping degradation using computed tomographic (CT) techniques. A mobile version of the Integrated Real-time Inspection System (IRIS) can be brought to a power-generating station where it can probe live steam piping for structural weaknesses right through the surrounding insulation.
- OSTI ID:
- 7130493
- Journal Information:
- Mechanical Engineering; (United States), Vol. 116:8; ISSN 0025-6501
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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