Magnetic Field Simulation for Circumferential Magnetic Phase Produced in Steam Generator Tube

Steam generator tubes (SGTs) in nuclear power plants (NPPs) are a boundary between the primary side generating heat by nuclear fission and the secondary side generating electric power by a turbine. The water inside the SGT is high temperature and high pressure. Therefore, defects and magnetic phases (MPs) are partly produced in non-magnetic SGT by high stresses and temperatures. This causes trouble regarding the safety of SGTs but it is difficult to detect the MP using the conventional eddy current technique (ECT). In particular, a circumferential defect (CD) and circumferential magnetic phase (CMP) cannot detected by ECT. Consequently, a new method is needed to detect CDs and CMPs in SGT. A new U-type yoke with two types of coils was designed and the reactance signal by the CMPs and CDs in the SGT material was simulated.