Version 1
: Received: 1 October 2024 / Approved: 2 October 2024 / Online: 2 October 2024 (13:00:20 CEST)
How to cite:
Thorpe, W. G.; Underhill, P. R.; Krause, T. W. Eddy Current Measurement of Electrical Resistivity in Heat Treated Zr-2.5%Nb Pressure Tubes. Preprints2024, 2024100145. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202410.0145.v1
Thorpe, W. G.; Underhill, P. R.; Krause, T. W. Eddy Current Measurement of Electrical Resistivity in Heat Treated Zr-2.5%Nb Pressure Tubes. Preprints 2024, 2024100145. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202410.0145.v1
Thorpe, W. G.; Underhill, P. R.; Krause, T. W. Eddy Current Measurement of Electrical Resistivity in Heat Treated Zr-2.5%Nb Pressure Tubes. Preprints2024, 2024100145. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202410.0145.v1
APA Style
Thorpe, W. G., Underhill, P. R., & Krause, T. W. (2024). Eddy Current Measurement of Electrical Resistivity in Heat Treated Zr-2.5%Nb Pressure Tubes. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202410.0145.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Thorpe, W. G., P. Ross Underhill and Thomas Walter Krause. 2024 "Eddy Current Measurement of Electrical Resistivity in Heat Treated Zr-2.5%Nb Pressure Tubes" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202410.0145.v1
Abstract
Zr-2.5%Nb Pressure tubes (PT) house uranium fuel bundles in the fuel channels of CANDU® nuclear reactors. Preventing a failure mode caused by contact of the PT with an outer calandria tube (CT) is performed by inspection using eddy current (EC) testing and ultrasonic testing (UT) to measure the PT-CT gap. EC gap measurements are particularly sensitive to circumferential variation of the PT’s electrical resistivity, due to microstructural variations. A full-factorial experiment was performed to examine the statistical significance of variations in EC test parameters and manufacturing conditions on average circumferential electrical resistivity of as-manufactured PTs. It was found that 79% of the variance in the data could be attributed to variations caused by any of the test factors or combinations of test factors. The parameters that accounted for the majority of the variance were; 1) heat treatment (HT); 2) HT and EC frequency; 3) probe inner or outer surface placement; and 4) EC frequency. Measurements of circumferential resistivity showed up to ± 2.3% variation from the average of either surface. HT caused average PT resistivity to decrease at a rate of 1.53±0.08 (μΩ⋅cm)/log(hr) and 1.1±0.4 (μΩ⋅cm)/log(hr) for inner and outer PT surfaces, respectively. Results are correlated with literature reported differences in average β_Zr ribbon thickness in the axial-transverse cross-section between inner and outer PT surfaces. Results demonstrate potential for EC based resistivity measurements to characterize variations and changes in microstructure of Zr-2.5%Nb PT material.
Keywords
Zr-2.5%Nb; Pressure Tubes; Eddy Current Testing; Electrical Resistivity; Fuel Channels
Subject
Engineering, Metallurgy and Metallurgical Engineering
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
