Identification of magnetic deposits in 2-D axisymmetric eddy current models via shape optimization

The non-destructive control of steam generators is an essential task for the safe and failure-free operation of nuclear power plants. Due to magnetite particles in the cooling water of the plants, a frequent source for failures are magnetic deposits in the cooling loop of steam generators. From eddy current signals measured inside a U-tube in the steam generator, we propose and analyze a regularized shap optimization algorithm to identify magnetic deposits outside the U-tube with either known or unknown physical properties. Motivated by the cylindrical geometry of the U-tubes we assume an axisymmetric problem setting, reducing Maxwell’s equations to a 2-D elliptic eddy current problem. The feasibility of the proposed algorithms is illustrated via numerical examples demonstrating in particular the stability of the method under noise.