444 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 17, NO.

2, JANUARY 15, 2017

Pulsed Eddy Current Inspection of Wall Loss

in Steam Generator Trefoil Broach Supports
Sarah G. Mokros, Peter Ross Underhill, Jordan E. Morelli, Senior Member, IEEE, and Thomas W. Krause

Abstract— Inspection for corrosion in steam generator (SG)

tube support structures is a significant component of monitoring
SG condition, since support degradation can lead to SG tube
flaws, and thereby further SG deterioration. A pulsed eddy
current probe was developed to augment SG inspection at
carbon steel trefoil broach supports. The probe demonstrated
capability to measure far side wall loss as small as 20% of
the original 2.7-mm-thick broach support ligament from within
the Alloy 800 SG tube. A power law fit of the data was found
to describe signal variation at later times under conditions of
varying wall thickness and lift-off. The associated power law
exponent varied linearly with wall thickness and was observed
to be largely independent of lift-off and angular orientation of
the probe, identifying it as a potential parameter for ligament
wall thickness monitoring. Voltage response integrated over time
also provided a low-noise means of measuring the wall loss when
lift-off variation and misalignment were not present. Fig. 1. Sample #1 - trefoil broach support plate structure with no wall loss
and a single SG tube. As labeled, the land is the point of contact between
Index Terms— Pulsed eddy current, broach support, steel wall broach support ligament and SG tube.
loss, steam generator.

I. I NTRODUCTION
S TEAM generators (SGs) are a key component of thermal
power reactors, including CANDU nuclear reactors.
SGs consist of thousands of tubes that transport heat generated
in the reactor core and convert that heat into usable energy [1].
Support structures, typically made of carbon or stainless steel,
are located at intervals along the SG and are used to brace
tubes [2]. Support structures are of various types, such as
lattice bar [1], trefoil or quatrefoil shaped holes [3]. These
structures prevent SG tube vibration and the associated risk
of SG tube fretting, while allowing water to flow past the
tubes [3]. An example of a simulated trefoil broach support
plate (BSP) structure, with only a single SG tube passing
through it, is shown in Figure 1. Also shown in Figure 1 are the
lands, which are the SG tube support points, and the ligaments
Manuscript received August 20, 2016; revised October 19, 2016; accepted
November 15, 2016. Date of publication November 23, 2016; date of current
version December 20, 2016. This work was supported in part by the University
Network of Excellence in Nuclear Engineering and in part by the Natural
Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. The associate editor
coordinating the review of this paper and approving it for publication was
Prof. F. Reverter.
S. G. Mokros and T. W. Krause are with the Department of Physics,
Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, ON K7K7B4, Canada (e-mail:
sarahmokros@gmail.com; thomas.krause@rmc.ca).
P. R. Underhill is with the Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, ON K7K7B4, Canada (e-mail:
ross.underhill@rmc.ca).
J. E. Morelli is with the Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and
Astronomy, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON K7L3N6, Canada (e-mail:
morelli@physics.queensu.ca).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JSEN.2016.2631541
1558-1748 © 2016 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
that separate the trefoil holes, containing the SG tubes, from
the flow regions.
Steam generators are subject to a number of degradation
modes, including cracking, denting or fretting, which often
arise in the vicinity of support structures, and if serious
enough can require plugging or removal of SG tubes [3]. Other
common issues such as flow assisted corrosion or tube vibra-
tions may cause wall loss in support structure ligaments [4].
Characterization of the SG tube and support structure condi-
tion can be crucial for monitoring SG life and, when combined
with preventative maintenance programs, can be used to extend
SG life.
Eddy current testing (ECT) is currently employed to per-
form the bulk of SG tube inspection [5], [6]. ECT is successful
at identifying integrity issues such as SG tube fretting [7] and
cracking, but is challenged at identifying flaws that may occur
in the presence of ferromagnetic materials, including steel
support structures [8], as well as in cases where overlapping
degradation modes are present [9].
PEC is an emerging technology that has been successful at
detecting many types of flaws that may appear in conducting
structures. Horan et al. [10] were able to identify cracks in
aluminum structures at large lift-off. PEC, when combined
with statistical methods such as principal components analysis,
has demonstrated a capability to detect cracks in the sec-
ond layer of multilayer aluminum structures [6], [7]. Recent
work on PEC steam generator inspection has investigated the
detection and characterization of multiple failure modes in
Alloy 800 at baffle plates including fretting [8], [9]. PEC has

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 MOKROS et al.: PULSED EDDY CURRENT INSPECTION OF WALL LOSS IN SG TREFOIL BROACH SUPPORTS
also been used to characterize low-energy impacts and inserted
defects in carbon fiber reinforced polymer laminates [5] and
corrosion of mild steels [11]. Chen et al. [12] have applied
the Hilbert transform for feature extraction in order to attain
robust and rapid identification of different defects.
In contrast to ECT, which uses sinusoidal voltage excitation
of coils, pulsed eddy current (PEC) utilizes a square pulse
to excite the drive coil. The transient voltage response of
pickup coils can be interpreted as consisting of a series of
discrete frequencies, while the approach to direct current (DC)
excitation in the pulse provides magnetization of ferromagnetic
materials, which further enhances pickup coil response [13].
While higher frequency components of the induced signal
form close to the surface of the material at early times, lower
frequency components, which are present at later times where
approach to a constant voltage arises, are capable of penetrat-
ing deeper into conducting and ferromagnetic materials [14].
The detection of wall loss in ferromagnetic structures has
been explored using pulsed eddy current. Results of experi-
mental work on ferromagnetic tubes demonstrate that the PEC
technique provides an improvement over present EC tools for
NDT of ferromagnetic tubes [15]. Spies [16] and Lara [17]
used PEC to measure remaining wall thickness in conduc-
tive ferromagnetic containers. More recently, Xu et al. [18]
demonstrated a technique to measure wall thickness from the
outside of ferromagnetic pipes through a layer of insulation.
Angani et al. [19] were capable of detecting localized wall
loss on stainless steel pipes through 25 mm of insulation.
A PEC probe has been developed to simultaneously measure
tube-to-support gaps and baffle plate hole inner diameter (ID),
simulating corrosion, in Alloy-800 SG tube within SS410 sup-
ports [8], [19]. Depth sizing of rectangular frets was demon-
strated as being independent of variations in SS410 hole inner
diameters (IDs) for centered tubes [8]. The probe featured
a single drive coil wound coaxially with the SG tube axis
and four or eight surface pick-up coils with axes mounted
perpendicular to that of the drive coil [8].
However, this probe design was not configured to examine
the threefold symmetry of trefoil broach supports. In addition,
the probe was not investigated for detection of wall loss on the
far side of support structure ligaments from within the SG tube.
This work uses laboratory measurements to investigate a PEC
probe design adapted to inspect remaining wall thickness
in the ligaments of ferromagnetic trefoil broach supports.
Two signal analysis methods are developed to provide a means
of measuring the amount of ligament wall loss on the far side
of the broach support land. One of the methods, based on a
power law fit, demonstrates sensitivity to wall loss while being
largely independent of lift-off and angular orientation of the
probe, identifying it as a potential candidate for ligament wall
thickness monitoring.
II. T HEORY
The expression for diffusion of the magnetic fields, B, into
a good conductor, with isotropic conductivity, σ, and perme-
ability, μ, is given by [19]:
∂B 1 2
= ∇ B (1)
∂t μσ
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445
Crude estimates for solutions to the diffusion equations are of
the form [20]:
∂B
∼ B/τ and ∇ 2 B ∼ B/2 . (2)
∂t
where τ is the characteristic diffusion time and l is a char-
acteristic length. In combination with equation 1, an approxi-
mate expression for the parameters that describe the diffusion
time, τ , of eddy currents into the target material, may be
expressed as [20]:
τ ∼ μ σ 2 (3)
Note that l is dependent on the geometry of the system under
which the measurements are being performed. Generally, time
domain solutions for pulse excitations are of the type [21]:
B = f (e−t /τ ) = A1 e−t /τ1 + A2 e−t /τ2 + A3 e−t /τ3 + . . . (4)
are obtained. The time-dependent change of magnetic field,
integrated over the area, a, and number of turns, N,
in a pick-up coil, results in an induced voltage as given
by Faraday’s law [22]:

∂B
V = −N · da. (5)
∂t
In this event equation 4 becomes:
V = C1 e−t /τ1 + C2 e−t /τ2 + C3 e−t /τ3 + . . . (6)
where the Ci are constants incorporating the integrated
response over the turns area of the coil and time derivative
of B in equation 4. In complex systems when multiple similar
exponential decay processes are present, the time-dependent
decay has been observed to take on the form of a power law
given by [23]:
V = At −b , (7)
where A is the power law coefficient and b is the power
law exponent. In the complex geometry of the trefoil broach
support multiple relaxation times will be present and there-
fore, the behaviour of the power law time dependence
described by equation 7 may be anticipated. Previous work
by He et al. [11] also used power law functions to fit PEC
response to early corrosion in coated and uncoated mild
steels. This work was focused on thin steel samples with PEC
measurements performed in the absence of large lift-offs [11].
III. E XPERIMENTAL T ECHNIQUE
A. PEC Probe and Data Acquisitions
The PEC probe consists of a single drive coil wound
coaxially with the SG tube axis, modified from that presented
elsewhere [8], [16], with a configuration of six surface pick-up
coils mounted with axes perpendicular to that of the drive
coil as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2(a) shows a schematic
of the probe design and Figure 2(b) the experimental probe.
Three pick-up coils, placed at 120° intervals around the probe
axis, are mounted above the drive coil and three below as
shown in Figure 2. This configuration was chosen to align with
the lands of the trefoil broach support structure for relative
comparison of signals between neighbouring lands. The probe
 446 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 17, NO. 2, JANUARY 15, 2017

Fig. 3. Broach support structures with simulated flaws representing: (a)

40%, 75% and 0% ligament wall loss (Sample 2), (b) 20%, 0% and 60%
wall loss (Sample 3) and (c) 0%, 100% and 0% wall loss (Sample 4).
Fig. 2. (a) Schematic and (b) experimental probe design used for inspection
of broach support structures.

can accommodate 3 additional coils on each row for improved

coverage. The addition of a 30° angular offset between the
front and back rows could also be used to further enhance
coverage of the probe configuration.
The drive coil was excited by a 9V square pulse 4 ms in
duration with a rise time of 5 μs and a 50% duty cycle.
The drive coil resistance of 7.4 , in series with the output
impedance of the pulse circuit of 0.3 , and drive coil
inductance of 232 μH results in a circuit rise time of τC =
L/R = 30 μs for which the rising current may be estimated
as [22]
V
I (t) = (1 − e−t/τC ). (8)
R
PEC pickup coil responses were collected separately and Fig. 4. Semi-log plot of experimental pick-up coil response under various
wall loss conditions. Solid lines indicate best fit to power law.
amplified by a factor of 10000. Shielded twisted pair cable
carried signals from the probe to a National Instruments (NI)
TABLE I
6356 USB Data Acquisition (DAQ) board where they were
C ARBON S TEEL S AMPLES W ITH FAR S IDE WALL L OSS (%)
digitized at 1 MHz per channel. The DAQ was connected to
a computer running a LabView program, which was used to
set the pulse parameters and record the signals.

B. Samples
Four broach support samples were water jet cut out of a
25.4 mm (1”) thick ferromagnetic A516 Carbon Steel plate.
Sample 1, shown in Figure 1, had no flaws. Three remain-
ing broach support plate samples had flaws machined into
ligaments to simulate varying amounts of wall loss between
0 and 100% on the far side of the lands, as shown in Figure 3.
Table 1 summarizes relative ligament wall loss and location
in each sample.
For the case where a ligament has been completely corroded corresponded to a 0.25 mm normal increment, up to 1.5 mm
away, as represented in Figure 3(c), the tube is free to from the land, which was at 60° to the line of motion.
move off-centre and away from other lands in the trefoil.
Alternatively, a land area may also loose material from the IV. R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSION
near side. Both of these cases could have a significant effect
on the pick-up coil response due to increased lift-off with A. Effects of Wall Loss
respect to the remaining structure. To experimentally inves- Wall loss on the far side of broach support lands was
tigate this effect, the tube was fixed to a micrometer that detected by observing the long transient decay times of
could translate the probe at desired increments away from pick-up coil responses. Figure 4 shows the experimental results
an unflawed land [9]. Measurements were taken at a 0.5 mm for pick-up coils located at lands in Figure 1, for no wall
interval into the gap left by the removed ligament in Sample 4, loss (0%), and at laboratory simulated wall loss locations
from 0 mm (touching the BSP land) up to 3 mm, which of 20%, 40%, 60% and 75% as listed in Table I.

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 MOKROS et al.: PULSED EDDY CURRENT INSPECTION OF WALL LOSS IN SG TREFOIL BROACH SUPPORTS
Fig. 5. Power law coefficient values, A, from power law best fit of the data.
Dashed curve is polynomial best fit to the experimental results.
Fig. 6. Power law exponent values extracted from power law line of best
fit. Dashed curve is a linear best fit to the data.
B. Quantification of Wall Loss
Experimental pick-up coil signal responses were fit with a
power law expression as expressed by equation 7, with the two
fit parameters, A, the power law coefficient and b, the power
law exponent. The power law was fit to the full range of wall
loss results shown in Figure 4. Determining coefficient, A,
and exponent, b, of the power law line of best fit could be
used as a technique to characterize wall loss on far side of
the land and form the basis for a calibration under inspection
conditions.
Figure 5 shows the power law fit coefficient,
A, in Equation 7 as a function of wall loss. Uncertainty
to one standard deviation was calculated using Microsoft
Excel 2010 LINEST function [24] applied to the originally
acquired data. Large uncertainty is present for the sample
at 60% wall loss. This may be attributed to the observed 20%
wall thickness variation (taper from 1.0 to 1.3 mm thickness
as per Table I) in the 60% wall loss ligament, Sample 3.
Figure 6 shows that the power exponent, b varies linearly
with wall loss. The 100% wall loss power law exponent is not
included due to its increase in amplitude by approximately
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447
Fig. 7. Experimental integration of pick-up coil response as a function of
wall loss. Dashed curve is a quadratic polynomial best fit to the data.
10 times. Large uncertainty is present for the 75% wall loss,
possibly due to a departure from power law behavior for the
thinnest ligament as well as higher noise in the signal as also
observed in Figure 4. Uncertainty in the fit parameter is again
shown to one standard deviation.
A numerical integration of the pick-up coil signal can also
be used to determine the wall loss and is shown in Figure 7.
The dashed curve is a quadratic polynomial best fit to the data.
By performing the integration, the majority of the noise that
arises in the experimental results at later times and at lower
signal amplitudes is suppressed. Combining integration with
the power law coefficient A and exponent b could provide
a robust technique to characterize the wall loss on the far
side of broach support plate ligaments under constant lift-off
conditions with probe centered over the land.
It can be observed in Figure 4 that as the amount of
wall loss is increased, the transient decay time decreased.
This result is consistent with that expected from Equation 3,
if the characteristic term l is associated with wall thickness.
Small deviations from the dashed curve and larger uncertainty
values for 60% wall loss ligament may be attributed to a
20% variation in the wall loss between top and bottom of
the sample. Under steam generator inspection conditions non-
uniform corrosion of the broach support structures and the
presence of corrosion products such as magnetite may be
anticipated [25]. In this event deviations from the more ideal
conditions observed here may arise. However, PEC probe
interaction will still be with average wall loss in the vicinity of
the drive coil. Recently, magnetite fouling has shown to have
a negligible impact on measured decay rate of the PEC probe
response [25].
C. Effects of Lift-Off
Lift-off of the probe from one land may arise if neighboring
lands on the nearside have undergone corrosion or loss of a
ligament has occurred. Figure 8 shows the experimental probe
response as a function of lift-off distance from the land of
a no wall loss ligament in the 100% wall loss Sample 4
shown in Figure 3(c). Experimental results were obtained at a
 448
Fig. 8. Effect of lift-off on pick-up coil response when inspecting an
unflawed broach support plate land. Solid curves are best fits to the power
law, Equation 7.
Fig. 9. Comparison of A ( ) and b () extracted from power law fit of
Equation 7 for pick-up coil response when lift-off increases. Both A and b
data have been best fit with a line.
0.43 mm interval as the pick-up coil was moved away from the
land. Solid curves are a best fit to the power law expression,
equation 7, and demonstrate that the power law still continues
to provide a good fit of the experimental results even at higher
lift-offs. A decrease in signal response is observed as the probe
is translated further from the land. Figure 9 shows a plot
of the power law coefficient A and the power law exponent
b as a function of lift-off. Error bars are to one standard
deviation [23]. It can be seen that while the coefficient A
decreases linearly as the lift-off is increased, b only changes by
10% for up to 1.5 mm of lift-off, suggesting that an estimate
of the percentage wall loss could still be extracted, even under
variable lift-off conditions.
D. Effects of Angular Variation
Effects due to misalignment of the pick-up coil with
respect to the centre of the land were also investigated, since
probe orientation may not be known during SG inspection.
Figure 10 shows the power law coefficient A and exponent b
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IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 17, NO. 2, JANUARY 15, 2017
Fig. 10. Power law coefficient (A) and exponent (b) as the alignment of the
pick-up coil was rotated. Power law coefficient A ( ) and exponent b () are
fit with cubic spline and linear best fit, respectively.
extracted from experimental results collected as the probe was
rotated inside Sample 2, at the unflawed land. The probe
was rotated from 0° to 60° in 15° increments (in the current
probe configuration 60° is the maximum angular separation
of a pick-up coil from the centre of a land in the current
probe configuration). The power law exponent shows that
even at large angular displacements, wall loss may still
be measured. A maximum 5% relative change in b occurs
between 0 and 15°. In contrast, the variation of power law
coefficient, A, indicates that the angular displacement has
a large effect on this parameter. Addition of pick-up coils
between the present coils (3 additional coils in a row) could
be used to further reduce potential misalignment with a given
land and improve coverage for measurement of remaining wall
thickness.
V. C ONCLUSION
A PEC probe was modified from a previously existing
design [8] to include six surface pick-up coils with spacing
to match the three-fold symmetry of trefoil broach supports.
Experimental measurements for various conditions of wall loss
in the 2.7 mm thick broach support ligaments demonstrated
an ability to detect wall loss of as little as 20%. Two methods
of characterizing the amount of wall loss were investigated.
A two-parameter power law fitting function was found to
describe the pick-up coil responses. Power law exponents were
found to be largely independent of lift-off up to 1.5 mm
and angular orientation up to 60° from the ligament centre.
The power law exponent varied linearly with wall loss and was
observed to be robust against variations in lift-off and angle.
Therefore, the power-law fit has potential as a means to char-
acterize wall loss based on in-situ measurements. A second
method that integrated the pick-up coil response over time was
also examined. The integrated signal response could be used to
manage noise contributions arising at low signal amplitudes at
later times, if lift-off variations or misalignment of the pick-up
coil with the land were not present.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The first author would like to thank Vijay Babbar, Jeremy
Buck and Brian Lepine at Canadian Nuclear Laborato-
ries (CNL) and Dr. Sean Sullivan from Ontario Power
 MOKROS et al.: PULSED EDDY CURRENT INSPECTION OF WALL LOSS IN SG TREFOIL BROACH SUPPORTS 449

Generation for useful discussion. The first author would also [24] Office Support. (Jul. 2015). LINEST Function. [Online]. Available:
like to thank Peter Snell for technical assistance. https://support.office.com/en-ca/article/LINEST-function-84d7d0d9-
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pp. 204–208, Dec. 2010. Thomas W. Krause received the B.Sc. degree in physics from the University
[20] H. C. Ohanian, “On the approach to electro-and magneto-static equilib- of Calgary, AB, Canada, in 1987, and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in physics
rium,” Amer. J. Phys., vol. 51, no. 11, pp. 1020–1022, Nov. 1983. from McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada, in 1989 and 1992, respec-
[21] T. W. Krause, C. Mandache, and J. H. V. Lefebvre, “Diffusion of pulsed tively. In 1996, after working four years with the Applied Magnetics Group
eddy currents in thin conducting plates,” in Proc. Rev. Progr. Quant. at Queen’s University, he took a position at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories,
Nondestruct. Eval., vol. 975, 2008, pp. 368–375. developing nondestructive testing (NDT) technology for the nuclear industry.
[22] D. J. Griffiths, Introduction to Electrodynamics, 3rd ed. In 2006, he was with the Royal Military College of Canada. He has 24 years
Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA: Prentice-Hall, 1999. of research and development experience on advanced NDT technology. He has
[23] W. J. Reed and B. D. Hughes, “Power-law distributions from exponential been a Professor for eight years, involved in research in pulsed eddy current,
processes: An explanation for the occurrence of long-tailed distributions eddy current, magnetic Barkhausen noise, and ultrasonic testing of materials
in biology and elsewhere,” Proc. JAMS, vol. 8, pp. 329–339, Mar. 2003. and structures.

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