Nondestructive characterization hydrogen-charged zircaloys with a laser ultrasound technique

A laser ultrasound technique (LUT) is reported for nondestructive characterization of hydrogen concentration (HC) in Zr-4 cladding tubes. With the LUT, ultrasonic waves propagating in the Zircaloy tubes with different HC are generated and detected remotely by optical means. By measuring the dispersion spectra with the LUT, relations between the dispersion spectra and the HC of the Zircaloy tubes are established. HC ranging from 0 to 1200 ppm in the Zircaloy tubes are successfully discriminated by the LUT with a resolution of 200 ppm.