An Example of VIC-3D® in Action

Let's suppose that you want to solve a steam-generator problem, in which a differential-bobbin probe coil scans a notch residing on the outer diameter of an Inconel tube, whose conductivity is 986,000 S/m. The problem is shown in the figure (all dimensions are in millimeters). differential bobbin and OD notch

The starting point for modelling this, or any other, problem with VIC-3D® is to create a new problem configuration. To do this, choose the `File | New' menu choice, or click the `New' speed button. This will create a bare-bones problem configuration, which consists of only a free-space workpiece, and an empty probe.

We want to create a cylindrical workpiece to model the tube, and we will model our probe with a single bobbin coil, and then defer, until post-processing, the complete simulation of the differential-bobbin configuration.

The following steps lead to a complete problem configuration. We perform each step by choosing the appropriate menu item from the `Configure' menu choice. These steps can be taken in any order; once they are complete, choose the `Analyze | Run!' menu choice, or click the `Run' speed button. (If you look really closely, you will see that the icon for this button resembles turning-gears.) When the run has been completed, the resulting data will be stored with the problem configuration. We will perform some post-processing on these data, before finally plotting the results. This post-processing, or `filtering,' capability is one of the significant features of version 3.0.

Here we go:

  1. Edit the Workpiece

  2. Edit the Probe

  3. Edit the Flaw

  4. Edit the Filter

  5. Plot the Results

Congratulations! You've just seen VIC-3D® in action.