DEVICE FOR MONITORING THE APPEARANCE AND DEPTH OF DEFECTS IN FUEL RODS Russian patent published in 2023 - IPC G01B11/30 

FIELD: nuclear engineering.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to nuclear engineering and can be used in the production of fuel rods from refurbished high background fuel. In the device, the ring-type illuminator is made on the basis of a multi-point LED source equipped with a funnel-shaped scattering device and providing a scattered light flux onto the fuel element surface at an angle equal to or less than 45°. The illuminator is equipped with a mechanism for longitudinal movement and fixation. A protective screen made of tungsten or lead is installed in the housing between the fuel rod and the video cameras. A number of 2D laser triangulation scanners is installed in the housing, which corresponds to the number of video monitoring units, and their viewing axes are set at the measurement distance. The direction of electronic scanning is set across the longitudinal axis of the fuel rod, and the width of the scanning zone is chosen equal to the frame width of the video monitoring unit. A sliding protective screen with a displacement drive is installed between the 2D scanners and the fuel rod. The transport system is made with a lower drive roller with a controlled drive at the entrance to the housing. The upper pressure roller is equipped with a fuel rod displacement sensor. The second drive roller of the transport system with a controlled drive and the second pressure roller with a displacement sensor are installed at the outlet of the housing. In front of the first and second drive rollers, non-contact sensors for the presence of a fuel element are installed. The outputs of non-contact sensors for the presence of a fuel element and sensors for the movement of a fuel element are connected to the inputs of the control device, the outputs of which are connected to the drives for moving the fuel element and the protective screen. The outputs of the video monitoring units are connected to the inputs of the video signal processing device, one logical output of which is connected to one of the inputs of the control device, and the information output is connected to the input of an industrial computer, while the outputs of 2D scanners are connected to the inputs of a personal computer.

EFFECT: invention improves the accuracy of control of the depth of mechanical defects and equipment durability.

1 cl, 1 dwg