• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.21-29
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• 1992

Acceleration signal characteristics of a steel plate, impacted by steel balls, were studied in an attempt to apply the experimental results to the impact location and mass estimation of metallic loose parts in the cooling system of nuclear power plants. Experimental results show that the variation of maximum acceleration amplitude and impact contact time due to the change of ball mass and impact velocity can be well explained by the Hertz impact theory. The frequency spectral pattern shifted slightly in spite of the increase of impact velocity and impact location. Ball mass, however, strongly affected the frequency spectral pattern. Hence the frequency spectrum can be used for estimation of the mass of unknown loose parts in the cooling system.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.7
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• pp.1160-1167
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• 2018

Detectability of the loose parts (LPs) in steam generator (SG) was studied with eddy current testing technique such as X-probe, bobbin and rotating coils ($MRPC^{(R)}$) as a function of LP size and spacing between LP and tube or between LP and support structures. SG mockup simulating SG tube and support structures with LP was fabricated. The X-probe showed slightly better detectability than $MRPC^{(R)}$ for LP of ferrous (F-LP) material and vice versa for LP of nonferrous (NF-LP) material. In terms of feasibility, inspection rate and other predictable features of the SG tubing inspections, X-probe can be used reliably for monitoring the LPs and the flaws formed by LPs on SG tubes.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.295-300
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• 1998

In this paper, a real time diagnostic algorithm fur 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). ADM decides whether the detected signal that triggers the alarm is the impact signal by loose parts or the noise signal. When the decision from ADM is concluded as the impact signal, the beginning time of burst-type signal, which the impact signal has usually such a form in time domain, provides the necessary data fur IEM. IEM by use of the arrival time method estimates the impact location of loose parts. The overall results of the estimated impact location are displayed on a computer monitor by the graphical mode and numerical data composed of the impact point, and thereby a plant operator can recognize easily the status of the impact event. This algorithm can perform the diagnosis process automatically and hence the operator's burden and the possible operator's error due to lack of expert knowledge of impact signals can be reduced remarkably. 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.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 1998.06a
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• pp.647-650
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• 1998

본 논문에서는 원자로의 몸통부위와 상,하부 헤드에 존재하는 금속파편에 의한 충격위치 예측을 위한 알고리즘에 금속파편의 질량을 동시에 판별하는 프로그램을 접목시켜 금속파편의 충격위치와 질량을 동시에 판별할 수 있는 통합 환경 LPMS(loose parts monitoring system)에 관한 연구를 수행하였다. 또한 모의실험을 통하여 본 연구에서 제안된 통합 환경 LPMS 알고리즘이 금속파편의 위치와 질량 예측을 함에 있어서 우수한 성능을 보임을 확인하였다.

• International Journal of Fuzzy Logic and Intelligent Systems
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.95-99
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• 2002

The Loose Part Monitoring System(LPMS) has been designed to detect. locate and evaluate detached or loosened parts and foreign objects in the reactor coolant system. In this paper, at first, we presents an application of the back propagation neural network. At the preprocessing step, the moving window average filter is adopted to reject the reject the low frequency background noise components. And then, extracting the acoustic signature such as Starting point of impact signal. Rising time. Half period. and Global time, they are used as the inputs to neural network . Secondly, we applied the neural network algorithm to LPMS in order to estimate the mass of loose parts. We trained the impact test data of YGN3 using the backpropagation method. The input parameter for training is Rising clime. Half Period amplitude. The result shored that the neural network would be applied to LPMS. Also, applying the neural network to thin practical false alarm data during startup and impact test signal at nuclear power plant, the false alarms are reduced effectively.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.38-47
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• 2018

For safe operation of nuclear power plants, a loose-part monitoring system (LPMS) is used to detect and locate loose-parts within the reactor coolant system, and to estimate their mass and damage potential. There are several methods to estimate mass, such as the center frequency method based on the Hertz's impact theory, a frequency ratio method and so on, but it is known that these methods cannot provide accurate information on impact response for identifying the impact source. Thanks to increasing computing power, finite element analysis (FEA) method recently become an available option to calculate reliably impact response behavior. In this paper, a finite element analysis model to simulate the propagation behavior of the bending wave, generated by a metal ball impact, is validated by performing a series of impact tests and the corresponding finite element analyses for flat plate and shell structures. Also, a FEA-based metal sphere signal map is developed, and then blind tests are performed to verify the map. This study provides an accurate simulation method for predicting the metal impact behavior and for building a metal sphere signal map, which can be used to estimate the mass of loose-parts on site in nuclear power plants.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.7
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• pp.1555-1562
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• 2017

A loose part monitoring system is used to identify unexpected loose parts in a nuclear reactor vessel or steam generator. It is still necessary for the mass estimation of loose parts, one function of a loose part monitoring system, to develop a new method due to the high estimation error of conventional methods such as Hertz's impact theory and the frequency ratio method. The purpose of this study is to propose a mass estimation method using a Markov decision process and compare its performance with a method using an artificial neural network model proposed in a previous study. First, how to extract feature vectors using discrete cosine transform was explained. Second, Markov chains were designed with codebooks obtained from the feature vector. A 1/8-scaled mockup of the reactor vessel for OPR1000 was employed, and all used signals were obtained by impacting its surface with several solid spherical masses. Next, the performance of mass estimation by the proposed Markov model was compared with that of the artificial neural network model. Finally, it was investigated that the proposed Markov model had matching error below 20% in mass estimation. That was a similar performance to the method using an artificial neural network model and considerably improved in comparison with the conventional methods.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2014.10a
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• pp.181-184
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• 2014

Loose Parts Monitoring System(LPMS) monitors loosened or detached parts and foreign parts inside the pressure boundary of a reactor coolant system (RCS). It is difficult to discriminate valid signal from LPMS alarms at full power since the signal pattern by thermal shocks and structure friction are similar to those by loose metal impacts. In addition, It is more difficult to discriminate the impact signals induced by the rod driving, sensor hard-line movement and loosened component since they have similar frequency characteristics with valid signals. This paper classifies the signal patterns by analyzing actual LPMS signal captured during nuclear power plant operation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.1306-1311
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• 2006

The root cause of abnormal sound from a heat exchanger of condensate water system in a nuclear power plant is investigated by using the impact signal-processing methodology based on the Hertz theory. The predicted results for the location of impact force and the loose part size meet good agreement with the identified materials during the overhaul period in the plant. Nuclear power plants have experienced several loose parts and the frequency of the loose part will be increased along the aging of the plants. So, this analysis methodology for the impact signal will be widely utilized for the primary and secondary side of the nuclear power plant.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.343-354
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• 2011

It is critically important to identify unexpected loose parts in a nuclear reactor pressure vessel, since they may collide with and cause damage to internal structures. Mass estimation can provide key information regarding the kind as well as the location of loose parts. This study proposes a mass estimation method based on an artificial neural network (ANN), which can overcome several unresolved issues involved in other conventional methods. In the ANN model, input parameters are the discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients of the auto-power spectrum density (APSD) of the measured impact acceleration signal. The performance of the proposed method is then evaluated through application to a large-sized plate and a 1/8-scaled mockup of a reactor pressure vessel. The results are compared with those obtained using a conventional method, the frequency ratio (FR) method. It is shown that the proposed method is capable of estimating the impact mass with 30% lower relative error than the FR method, thus improving the estimation performance.