Analysis of Platen Superheater Tube Degradation in Thermal Power Plants via Destructive/Non-Destructive Characteristic Evaluation

Coal-fired power plants operating under Korea’s standard supercritical pressure operate in a high-temperature environment, with steam temperatures reaching 540 °C. A standard coal-fired power plant has a 30-year design life, and lifespan diagnosis is performed on facilities that have operated for more than 100,000 h or 20 years. Visual inspection, thickness measurements, and hardness measurements in the field are used to assess the degree of material degradation at the time of diagnosis. In this study, aging degradation was assessed using an electromagnetic acoustic transducer to measure the change in transverse ultrasonic propagation speed, and the results were compared to microstructural analysis and tensile test results. Based on the experimental results, it was found that the boiler tube exposed to a high-temperature environment during long-term boiler operation was degraded and damaged, the ultrasonic wave velocity was reduced, and the microstructural grains were coarsened. It was also confirmed through tensile testing that the tensile and yield strengths increased with degradation. Our findings prove that the degree of change in mechanical properties as a function of the material’s degradation state is proportional to the change in ultrasonic wave velocity.

Influence of Magnetostriction Induced by the Periodic Permanent Magnet Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducer (PPM EMAT) on Steel

The periodic permanent magnet electromagnetic acoustic transducer (PPM EMAT) is a sensor that can generate and receive shear horizontal (SH) waves without direct contact with the inspected medium using the Lorentz mechanism. However, the PPM EMAT experiences high signal variance on ferromagnetic steel under specific conditions, such as a change in signal amplitude when the sensor is moved in the direction of SH wave propagation. Magnetostriction effects are hypothesized to be the cause of these anomalous behaviors; the objective of this paper is to determine the relative strengths of the magnetostriction and Lorentz wave generation mechanisms for this type of EMAT on steel. This goal is accomplished through the use of a second EMAT, which induces only magnetostriction (MS-EMAT), to calibrate a novel semi-empirical magnetostriction model. It is found that magnetostriction effects reduce the amplitude of the SH wave generated by this particular PPM EMAT transmitter by an average of 29% over a range of input currents. It is also determined that magnetostriction is significant only in the investigated PPM EMAT transmitter, not the receiver. In terms of practical application, it is shown that the MS-EMAT is less sensitive to changes in the static and dynamic fields than PPM EMATs at specific operating points; this makes the MS-EMAT a viable alternative for nondestructive evaluation despite lower amplitudes.

Numerical Study of Detection of Crack on Corroded Rough Surface Using EMAT-Generated Surface Wave

Electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) gradually becomes the main excitation method for surface wave, which is suitably used in periodic inspection or long-term monitoring of pressure equipment. However, the corroded surfaces appearing on the pressure pipes and vessels can cause an increase of background noise and remarkable attenuation of the echo wave, which restrict the improvement of detection accuracy of surface crack. In this paper, a finite element model of EMAT-Generated surface wave inspection for steel plate with rough surface is established based on the constitutive equation of ferromagnetic materials. Considering the Lorentz force and magnetostrictive effect, the influences of rough surface on energy conversion of multiple fields in the excitation and propagation process of electromagnetic acoustic surface wave are separately investigated. The surface wave responses of cracks characterized by rectangular groove on corroded rough surface have been analyzed further. The numerical results indicate that the rough surface of the excitation region below the transducer with a center frequency of 330 kHz has a slight effect on the surface wave energy, while the surface roughness of the propagation region attenuates echo signal of crack significantly. The reflection coefficients of echo signals can be utilized to quantitatively characterize the depth of crack on the corroded surface with roughness less than λ/15 (λ is wavelength of surface wave).

Исследование выявляемости поверхностных плоскостных дефектов ультразвуковым методом с применением волн Рэлея

The issues of detecting operational surface planar flaws by the ultrasonic non-destructive testing method with the use of Rayleigh surface waves generated by an electromagnetic-acoustic transducer are considered. The paper presents experimental studies of planar defects detection, simulated by an artificial reflector of the "notch" type with different width, depth and angle of inclination. The dependences of the signal amplitude on the listed parameters are constructed and their character was estimated. The optimal amplitude models for constructing the probability of detection curves (PoD) have been determined. A conclusion is made about the minimum dimensions of an operational planar flaw detected by the considering method with a probability of 90%, taking into account the confidence interval of 95%.

Guided wave–based rail flaw detection technologies: state-of-the-art review

The unavoidable increase in train speed and load, as well as the aging of railway facilities, is requiring more and more attention to rail defects detection. As a promising tool for rail, in-service high-speed inspection, guided wave–based detection technologies have been developed in succession by researches in the past two decades. However, there is a lack of a systematic review on the developments and performances of these technologies. This article reviews ultrasonic rail inspection methods comprehensively with the focus on the state-of-the-art technologies based on guided wave. Different excitation options, including train wheel, electromagnetic acoustic transducer, pulsed laser, air-coupled, and contact piezoelectric transducer, are described, respectively, along with their inspection sensitivities, regions, and potential speeds. Finally, future challenges and prospects are discussed to a certain extent to provide references for researchers in this area.

Stress measurement based on magnetostrictive characteristic parameters

Non-destructive testing (NDT) involving stress measurement has found a wide range of applications in rail, pipeline, bridge and other engineering areas and it is therefore necessary to find a method to measure stress. In this paper, a non-destructive method is proposed to measure stress by observation of the magnetostrictive properties of the objects. Stress in the elastic range is applied to the ferromagnetic material, changing its lattice, while stress in the plastic range changes its microstructure. These are the reasons for the magnetostrictive coefficient variation of the material. An experimental platform was set up, using a cantilever beam with a strain gauge, to study the relationship between the SH wave, the static magnetic field strength and the applied uniaxial stress. The curve obtained shows the relationship between the amplitude of the electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) signal and the static magnetic field strength. The magnetostrictive parameters, sensitive to stress, were extracted from the curve. This method is verified through trials on test samples with a maximum relative error between experimental and predicted values of 8.06%.

Исследование выявляемости поверхностных объемных дефектов при ультразвуковом контроле с применением волн Рэлея, генерируемых электромагнитно-акустическим преобразователем

The paper presents the study of the "pitting corrosion" surface operational flaws detectability by the ultrasonic method of non-destructive testing. The possibility of using Rayleigh surface waves excited by an electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) for these purposes is considered. Blind vertical drills of various diameters and depths were used as artificial defects to simulate these flaws in low-carbon steel specimens. Based on the measurement results, the dependences of the amplitude of the received signals on the drilling parameters were plotted. During the statistical processing of the results, the signal-to-noise ratio was taken into account upon excitation of the Rayleigh wave using EMAT on defect-free areas of the samples. To construct curves of probability of detection (PoD), optimal models of the amplitudes distribution are determined. Under the conditions of the experiments carried out using the constructed PoD curves, conclusions were made about the minimum dimensions of a "pitting corrosion" type defect, detected with a probability of 90 %, taking into account the confidence interval of 95%, and about the possibility of adjusting the ultrasonic testing parameters using signals reflected from vertical drills.