Optimization of Geometrical Parameters of a Magnetostrictive Ultrasonic Guided Wave Probe for Tube Inspection

Non-destructive examination of steam generator (SG) tubes of Fast Breeder Reactors is of paramount importance. The inspection needs to be carried out from the inner side of an SG tube due to the constraint in accessibility. Recently, the magnetostrictive ultrasonic guided wave (MUGW) technique has been proposed as an alternative for the inspection of SG tubes. As a commercial MUGW probe for small-diameter ferromagnetic tubes is not available, it needs to be designed and developed with optimum parameters. This paper proposes a three-step optimization approach for the development of a MUGW probe, namely optimization of the diameter and length of a permanent magnet (for bias) finite element modeling based, optimization of the width of the transmitter and receiver coils of the probe by empirical modeling and the optimization of the number of turns of the transmitter and receiver coils by equivalent circuit models. A MUGW probe is fabricated and tested experimentally to validate the optimized parameters. Experiments show the validity of the approach in terms of generation, long-range propagation (47.6 m) of L(0,2) mode at 300 kHz, and the required sensitivity (multiple 10% wall thickness deep uniform wall loss circumferential grooves) in SG tubes.