• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.76-84
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• 1997

Loose parts monitoring system(LPMS), which is used to detect metallic loose parts in the nuclear power plant, plays an important role in safe and reliable operation of the plant. To prevent from the damage due to the loose parts, most domestic nuclear power plants are using, or planning to use LPMS. However, these LPMS's, which are all invented from overseas and thereby depend on the oversea technologies, are very expensive, and are known to be inefficient to diagnose loose parts due to the lack of fundamental know-how of LPMS. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to propose and to realize a new loose parts localization algorithm which is simple and efficient enough even for the inexperienced operators to diagnose loose parts accurately and promptly. Considering practical nuclear power plant circumstances, some simulations for estimating the loose parts location have been done. The results show that the proposed method, called a modified circle intersection method, performs high resolved loose parts localization with 3.4% of error.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.61-66
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• 2011

The integrity of the SG(Steam Generator) tubes has been challenged by numerous factors such as flaws, operation, atmosphere, inherently degraded materials, loose parts and even human errors. Of the factors, loose parts(or foreign materials) on the secondary side of the tubes can bring about volumetric defects and even leakage from the primary to the secondary side in a short period of time. More serious concerns about the loose parts are their unknown influx path and rapid growth rate of the defects affected by the loose parts. Therefore it is imperative to detect and characterize the foreign materials and the defects. As a part of the measures for loose part detection, TTS(Top of Tubesheet) MRPC(Motorized Rotating Pancake Coils) ECT has been carried out especially to the restricted high probability area of the loose part. However, in the presence of loose parts in the other areas, wide range loose part detection techniques are required. In this study, loose part standard tube was presented as a way to accurately detect and characterize loose part signals. And the SG tube ECT bobbin coil and MRPC ISI(In-service Inspection) data of domestic OPR-1000 and Westinghouse Model F(W_F) were reviewed and consequently, comprehensive loose part detection technique is derived especially by applying bobbin coil signals

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2000.06a
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• pp.670-678
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• 2000

Loose parts monitoring system(LPMS) is one of the important monitoring systems for the safe and efficient operation of the nuclear reactor, since it is LPMS that can early detect loose parts which may cause a significant damage in facilities or components of the plant. Nuclear power plants in Korea have recently experienced several loose part alarms due to the metallic impact and it is expected that the frequency of the loose part will be increased along the aging of the plants. In this paper, the status of loose parts monitoring technologies and facilities in Korean nuclear power plants is presented for the establishment of LPMS installation plan in some nuclear reactors which are not yet equipped with LPMS. Sensor specification, location and mounting method for loose parts monitoring were reviewed. As a result, the location and the mounting method of the properly chosen sensor was recommended. Data acquisition algorithms and discriminating rules of loose part impact signals were also reviewed. Actual alarm cases occurred by true impact signal and false impact signal were stated here.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.594-601
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• 2016

Mass estimation analysis of loose-parts in pressure vessel is necessary for the structural integrity assessment of pressure boundary in nuclear power plants. Mass of loose-parts can be generally estimated from the peak values and the center frequency of impact signals. Magnitude of impact signals is, however, inevitably attenuated according to the traveling distance of the signals and depending on the frequencies. Attenuation rate must be therefore carefully compensated for the precise estimation of loose-part mass. This paper proposes a new compensation method for the attenuation rate based on Bessel function instead of Hankel function in conventional method which has a limitation of usage in near the impact location. It was verified that the suggested compensating equation based on the Bessel function can be applied to the attenuation rate calculation without any limitation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.1199-1209
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• 2021

The detection of unexpected loose parts in the primary coolant system in a nuclear power plant remains an extremely important issue. It is essential to develop a methodology for the localization and mass estimation of loose parts owing to the high prediction error of conventional methods. An effective approach is presented for the localization and mass estimation of a loose part using machine-learning and deep-learning algorithms. First, a methodology was developed to estimate both the impact location and the mass of a loose part at the same times in a real structure in which geometric changes exist. Second, an impact database was constructed through a series of impact finite-element analyses (FEAs). Then, impact parameter prediction modes were generated for localization and mass estimation of a simulated metallic loose part using machine-learning algorithms (artificial neural network, Gaussian process, and support vector machine) and a deep-learning algorithm (convolutional neural network). The usefulness of the methodology was validated through blind tests, and the noise effect of the training data was also investigated. The high performance obtained in this study shows that the proposed methodology using an FEA-based database and deep learning is useful for localization and mass estimation of loose parts on site.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.148-154
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• 2017

This paper discussed design for resonance avoidance of sensor plates of loose-parts monitoring systems (LPMS) in nuclear power plants (NPP). An LPMS monitors impact of loose parts in primary loop of NPP by using accelerometers, which is mounted on sensor plates. Resonance of the plates may cause false alarms at frequencies over 10 kHz, which can be misunderstood as impact signals of loose parts with small mass and cause unnecessary response of NPP operators. Modal analysis was carried out for the existing sensor plate and design parameters affecting natural frequencies were chosen. Frequency response functions of plates were analyzed by changing the parameters and the optimized plate design for avoiding resonance was determined. Experiments was carried out for the plate specimen with improved design and verified the proposed approach and design.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.846-855
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• 2020

A loose part monitoring system is used to detect unexpected loose parts in a reactor coolant system in a nuclear power plant. It is still necessary to develop a new methodology for the localization and mass estimation of loose parts owing to the high estimation error of conventional methods. In addition, model-based diagnostics recently emphasized the importance of a model describing the behavior of a mechanical system or component. The purpose of this study is to propose a new localization and mass-estimation method based on finite element analysis (FEA) and optimization technique. First, an FEA model to simulate the propagation behavior of the bending wave generated by a metal sphere impact is validated by performing an impact test and a corresponding FEA and optimization for a downsized steam-generator structure. Second, a novel methodology based on FEA and optimization technique was proposed to estimate the impact location and mass of a loose part at the same time. The usefulness of the methodology was then validated through a series of FEAs and some blind tests. A new feature vector, the cross-correlation function, was also proposed to predict the impact location and mass of a loose part, and its usefulness was then validated. It is expected that the proposed methodology can be utilized in model-based diagnostics for the estimation of impact parameters such as the mass, velocity, and impact location of a loose part. In addition, the FEA-based model can be used to optimize the sensor position to improve the collected data quality in the site of nuclear power plants.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.3 no.1 s.4
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• pp.101-108
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• 1999

In this paper, a real time diagnostic algorithm for estimating the impact location by loose parts is proposed. It is composed of two modules such as the alarm discrimination module (ADM) and the impact-location estimation module(IEM). First, ADM decides whether the detected signal that triggers the alarm is the impact signal by loose parts or the noise signal. Second, IEM by use of the arrival time method estimates the impact location of loose parts. In order to validate the application of this method, the test experiment with a mock-up (flat board and reactor) system is performed. The experimental results show the efficiency of this algorithm even under high level noise and potential application to Loose Part Monitoring System (LPMS) for improving diagnosis capability in nuclear power plants.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.227-234
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• 2000

It is known that loose parts in the reactor coolant system (RCS) cause serious damage to the systems. This paper is concerned with estimating the mass of a loose part in the steam generator of a nuclear power plant. We developed the mass estimation algorithm based on the Hertz theory in order to estimate the mass of the loose parts and applied the algorithm to the impact test data of YGN3. The mass estimation values were compared with real values in order to verify the algorithm. The result showed that the average error of the mass estimation value is less than 27%.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2014.10a
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• pp.839-841
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• 2014

The Nuclear Steam Supply System(NSSS) is designed to provide an integrated approach that includes areas of monitoring relevant to the integrity of the NSSS. LPMS is designed to function as an alarm system by providing sensor channel alarms for the associated subsystems. LPMS is equipped to provide analysis tools for new alarm events, historical events and for historical periodically stored channel data (e.g. waveforms) for most channels. This paper is intended to introduce the diagnosis principle and abnormal symptom of loose parts monitoring system as a monitoring tool in Nuclear Steam Supply System. And also, we are going to introduce signal analysis program in order to perform the actual diagnosis in power plants.