Ricerc@Sapienza

In the framework of the European Union MAXSIMA project, the safety of the steam generator (SG) adopted in the primary loop of the Heavy Liquid Metal Fast Reactor has been studied investigating the consequences and damage propagation of a SG tube rupture event and characterizing leak rates from typical cracks. Instrumentation able to promptly detect the presence of a crack in the SG tubes may be used to prevent its further propagation, which would lead to a full rupture of the tube.

In the framework of EU MAXSIMA project, the safety of the Steam Generator (SG) adopted in the primary loop of the Heavy Liquid Metal Fast Reactors (HLMFR) has been treated by looking at consequences and damage propagation of a SG Tube Rupture event (SGTR) and by characterizing leak rates from typical cracks. Indeed, instrumentation able to promptly detect the presence of a crack in the steam generator tubes may be used to prevent its further propagation which would possibly lead to a full rupture of the tube.

In this work, an innovative system for structural health monitoring of metallic pipes is presented. The proposed system relies on exploiting the pipeline as a waveguide for the propagation of an electromagnetic (EM) signal. By analyzing the reflected signal, it is possible to assess the possible presence of anomalies or damage in the pipe.The innovative aspect of the proposed monitoring system is that the EM test signal is injected in the pipeline/waveguide through a coaxial/waveguide transition that is made on the surface of the pipe.