US 11,719,591 B2
Method for detecting leakage of a hollow component and installation for implementing such a method
Jean Luc Regef, Taipei (TW); Brian Bright, Ontario (CA); and Youri Dolgorouky, Orsay (FR)
Assigned to ATEQ, Les Clayes sous Bois (FR)
Appl. No. 16/628,318
Filed by ATEQ, Les Clayes Sous Bois (FR)
PCT Filed Jul. 6, 2018, PCT No. PCT/EP2018/068433
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Apr. 3, 2020,
PCT Pub. No. WO2019/008169, PCT Pub. Date Jan. 10, 2019.
Claims priority of application No. 1756387 (FR), filed on Jul. 6, 2017; and application No. 1760250 (FR), filed on Oct. 30, 2017.
Prior Publication US 2020/0240868 A1, Jul. 30, 2020
Int. Cl. G01M 3/22 (2006.01); G01M 3/20 (2006.01); G01M 3/32 (2006.01)
CPC G01M 3/229 (2013.01) [G01M 3/205 (2013.01); G01M 3/207 (2013.01); G01M 3/224 (2013.01); G01M 3/3272 (2013.01)] 12 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for detecting a leakage in a hollow component wherein said hollow component comprises a compartment A and a compartment B adjacent to said compartment A, the method comprising the steps of:
sealing said hollow component;
pressurizing, at a pressure P1, a tracer gas within one of said compartment A or said adjacent compartment B after having sealed same;
pressurizing, at a pressure P2, pressure P2 having a lower pressure value than pressure P1, a different gas within the other of said compartment A or said adjacent compartment B;
injecting a tracer gas into an injection chamber formed by one of the compartment A or compartment B, the other of the compartment A or compartment B including the different gas than the tracer gas;
following a waiting of an accumulation time T, sampling at least part of the contents of one of said compartment A or compartment B into which the tracer gas was not injected;
concentrating in a concentration chamber the sampling in order to concentrate, in a downstream sample volume, the tracer gas potentially contained in one of the compartment A or compartment B into which the tracer gas was not injected; and
searching for the presence of the tracer gas in said sample volume.