Eddy Current Testing in Power Generation: What It Finds, What It Misses, and What Governs It
What ET is actually used for in power generation
Condenser and feedwater heater tubing is eddy current's core power-generation work — full-bundle screening each major outage with plugging decisions made tube by tube.
How ET works
Eddy current testing induces circulating currents in a conductive material and reads the impedance change a discontinuity causes. It needs no couplant and no contact, which makes it the fastest surface and near-surface method available — and, in tube form, the only practical way to screen thousands of heat-exchanger tubes inside a shutdown window.
What ET will not do
What ET will not do: examine non-conductive material, penetrate deeply (the effect is confined near the surface, more so as frequency rises), or produce results anyone can interpret without training — signal interpretation is the whole skill, and lift-off, edge effects and permeability variation all masquerade as indications.
The power generation assets this applies to
Boilers and HRSGs, headers and steam piping, turbine rotors and blading, generators, condensers and feedwater heaters, and the structural steel around them.
The damage mechanisms driving the examination
Creep and thermal fatigue in high-temperature circuits, flow-accelerated corrosion in secondary systems, tube degradation in condensers and exchangers, and fatigue in rotating equipment.
What governs acceptance
ASME construction codes for pressure parts, Section XI where the plant is nuclear, and fleet-specific programmes that frequently add examination beyond code minimum. The outage window governs everything operationally. On the method side: ASME Section V Article 8 for tubing; ASTM E243 and E571 for specific product forms; aerospace surface examination runs under NAS 410 with OEM technique requirements. An examination that is technically sound but performed outside the governing regime is not an examination anyone will accept, which is why the code family matters as much as the technique.
How Atlantis delivers ET in this sector
Atlantis mobilises examination teams to your site under Atlantis procedures with ASNT Level III oversight — we do not claim a depot or laboratory in every market, and say so plainly. What you receive is the examination performed to a qualified procedure, findings evaluated against the acceptance criteria your contract names, and records structured to survive a client audit years later.
Eddy Current Testing services · ET training and certification · Power Generation programme consulting · Power Generation NDT training · scope a ET examination.
ET in other sectors
Refining · Petrochemical · LNG · Offshore · Pipeline · Marine & Shipbuilding.