NONDESTRUCTIVE INSPECTION METHOD FOR A HEAT EXCHANGER EMPLOYING ADAPTIVE NOISE THRESHOLDING

• Main Authors: BOWSER, CRAIG G, LE, QUI V
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French
• Published: 05.04.2012
• Subjects: INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIRCHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; MEASURING; MEASURING ELECTRIC VARIABLES; MEASURING MAGNETIC VARIABLES; PHYSICS; TESTING

A method of eddy current testing for flaws in a tube is provided that includes passing an eddy current probe through the tube and obtaining eddy current data for a number of positions along the tube, analyzing the eddy current data to generate background noise data for a number of positions along the tube, analyzing the eddy current data to generate extracted data for a number of positions along the tube, and determining whether a flaw of a particular category is present in the tube based on a set of one or more of rules applied to at least a portion of the extracted data, wherein at least one of the rules uses a particular part of the extracted data and employs a threshold that is a function a particular part of the background noise data that is associated with the particular part of the extracted data.