Automatic X-ray inspection for escaped coated particles in spherical fuel elements of high temperature gas-cooled reactor

Min Yang, Qi Liu, Hongsheng Zhao, Ziqiang Li, Bing Liu, Xingdong Li and Fanyong Meng

Energy, 2014, vol. 68, issue C, 385-398

Abstract: As a core unit of HTGRs (high-temperature gas-cooled reactors), the quality of spherical fuel elements is directly related to the safety and reliability of HTGRs. In line with the design and performance requirements of the spherical fuel elements, no coated fuel particles are permitted to enter the fuel-free zone of a spherical fuel element. For fast and accurate detection of escaped coated fuel particles, X-ray DR (digital radiography) imaging with a step-by-step circular scanning trajectory was adopted for Chinese 10 MW HTGRs. The scanning parameters dominating the volume of the blind zones were optimized to ensure the missing detection of the escaped coated fuel particles is as low as possible. We proposed a dynamic calibration method for tracking the projection of the fuel-free zone accurately, instead of using a fuel-free zone mask of fixed size and position. After the projection data in the fuel-free zone were extracted, image and graphic processing methods were combined for automatic recognition of escaped coated fuel particles, and some practical inspection results were presented.

Keywords: Spherical fuel elements; High-temperature gas-cooled reactors; Digital radiography; Automatic recognition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:68:y:2014:i:c:p:385-398

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2014.02.076

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