Development of an Ultrasonic Testing Technique for the NDT of Breeder Reactor End Cap Welds

摘要

The end cap welds on fuel pins of fast reactors are currently being tested by X-ray radiography. An alternative, cost effective immersion ultrasonic technique has been developed for testing these end cap welds. The technique uses a highly damped point focused probe, positioned precisely, to generate a 45 deg shear wave in the tube that is intercepted by any discontinuity at the weld joint. The discontinuity is displayed as the A-scan signal in pulse/echo mode. Experiments conducted with standard discontinuities and sample welds show good correlation between the developed ultrasonic testing technique and traditional radiography and destructive metallography. A few interesting results of the end cap weld quality testing using the technique are discussed in this paper.