We have developed an advanced under-sodium ultrasonic visual inspection technique in order to observe in-vessel structures in a Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) whose reactor vessel is filled with opaque liquid sodium. The final goal of this work is achievement of resolution equivalent to that of an image obtained by optical fiber scope. · The under-sodium ultrasonic visualizing system consists of a matrix-arrayed transducer and a signalprocessing device. The matrix-arrayed transducer, in which 36x36 piezoelectric elements are arranged with 5 mm interval and sealed by a thin metal diaphragm, can realize a 3-dimensional image with high resolution. Regarding signal processing, the 3-dimensional image synthetic processing and the cross correlation processing for the purpose of improving S / N ratio of ultrasonic echoes are implemented on a high-speed parallel processor. Under-sodium imaging test was carried out, and it was confirmed that a 3-dimensional image of the blind target, which was prepared without information beforehand, could be visualized clearly with less than 2.0 mm resolution under-sodium.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.