Non destructive testing of actively cooled plasma facing components by means of thermal transient excitation and infrared imaging

SATIR is a new test-bed installed at Tore Supra to perform non destructive examination of actively cooled plasma facing components. Hot and cold water flow successively in the cooling tube of the component and the surface temperature is recorded with an infrared camera. Defects are detected by a slower temperature response above unbrazed areas. The connection between temperature differences and defect sizes is the main difficulty. It is established by tests of standard defects and thermal transient calculations of defective geometries. SATIR has been in use for two years and has proved to be very valuable to test industrial components as well as prototypes.