A novel signal processing technique for eddy-current testing of steam generator tubes

Abstract

In eddy-current testing of steam generator tubes of nuclear power plants, the signals of defects may be corrupted by noise and other nondefect signals arising from the probe lift-off and the structures attached to the tubes, resulting in unreliable detection and inaccurate characterization of defects. In this paper, a novel signal processing technique is presented to reduce the noise and nondefect signals by the use of a wavelet transform. The noise and nondefect signals are reduced by first decomposing testing signals into wavelet components and then modifying the wavelet coefficients. The defect signals embedded in noise and nondefect signals are reconstructed through the inverse wavelet transform of the modified wavelet coefficients. The results of processing the one-dimensional and two-dimensional signals from eddy-current testing of tube test pieces show that this signal processing technique is effective for extracting defect signals embedded in noise and nondefect signals.