Optical wear measurement in tubes from 125 mm diameter at Wylfa

Nuclear Electric has developed a laser surface profile measuring system. This system could be used to profile any surface, but is particularly suited to flat surfaces that are uneven due to damage or deformation. The system has been used to obtain profiles of the Wylfa Dry Store Cell Radius M Tubes, where there is surface scoring to less than 5mm depth. A cylindrical stainless steel pod contains a CCD camera, which views through an aperture in the side of the casing via a 45 degree mirror. Alongside this camera, a laser stripe projector generates a thin illuminated line on the surface, angled relative to both the surface and the optical axis. When this strikes an uneven surface, its projection across the optical axis varies with the height of the surface, producing a cross sectional profile of the surface. For the Wylfa inspection, profiles were taken at 10mm intervals along the tube. The positions of the stripes were manually digitised using a framestore. The displacement was calculated, and correction factors were applied to compensate for the pod pitching, rolling and skewing. Calibration was achieved by viewing grooves of known depth in a test piece. Finally, the individual corrected and scaled stripes were combined and output as either a greyscale or contour map of the surface, where grey level corresponds to depth of wear damage. Rms error of the data produced was plus or minus 0.5mm of depth for each individual data point, and plus or minus 0.25mm for statistical data such as the mean wear. Using this method, 4 metres of tube can be inspected in an hour, with subsequent data processing taking about 3 man-days. (UK)