• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제56권3호
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• pp.893-899
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• 2024

In a secondary cooling system of a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), rapid detection of hydrogen due to sodium-water reaction (SWR) caused by water leakage from a heat exchanger tube of a steam generator (SG) is important in terms of safety and property protection of the SFR. For hydrogen detection, the hydrogen detectors using atomic transmission phenomenon of hydrogen within Ni-membrane were used in Japanese proto-type SFR "Monju". However, during the plant operation, detection signals of water leakage were observed even in the situation without SWR concerning temperature up and down in the cooling system. For this reason, the study of a new hydrogen detector has been carried out to improve stability, accuracy and reliability. In this research, the authors focus on the difference in composition of hydrogen and the difference between the background hydrogen under normal plant operation and the one generated by SWR and theoretically estimate the hydrogen behavior in liquid sodium by using ultra-accelerated quantum chemical molecular dynamics (UA-QCMD). Based on the estimation, dissolved H or NaH, rather than molecular hydrogen (H₂), is the predominant form of the background hydrogen in liquid sodium in terms of energetical stability. On the other hand, it was found that hydrogen molecules produced by the sodium-water reaction can exist stably as a form of a fine bubble concerning some confinement mechanism such as a NaH layer on their surface. At the same time, we observed experimentally that the fine H₂ bubbles exist stably in the liquid sodium, longer than previously expected. This paper describes the comparison between the theoretical estimation and experimental results based on hydrogen form in sodium in the development of the new hydrogen detector in Japan.

• 대한기계학회논문집B
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• 제36권6호
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• pp.655-662
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• 2012

심각한 사고를 초래하는 석유화학 플랜트의 가스 누출 여부와 위치를 실시간으로 탐지하기 위하여 주변의 여러 기계소음 등으로부터 비정상적 누출 음향을 분리할 수 있는 기법을 제시하였다. LMS 알고리즘을 이용하여 FIR구조의 적응필터와 누출 탐지용 상호상관함수를 이용하여, LABVIEW를 통하여 누출예측프로그램을 개발하였고 직접 제작한 장비를 이용하여 잔향실에서 실험을 수행하였다. 홀 사이즈, 압력, 거리, 주파수를 인자로 하여 비정상적 누출소음에 대한 실험에서 얻어진 데이터를 분석한 결과, 암소음은 1kHz 대역 이하에서 주로 발생하고 누출에 의한 소음신호는 고주파 대역, 특히 16kHz의 대역에서 가장 잘 발생한다는 것을 알게 되었다. 이런 음향기법의 가능성을 확인하기 위해서 실제로 정유공장에서 소음을 측정한 결과, 펌프와 압축기에서의 소음신호가 각각 2kHz, 4.5kHz로 측정됨으로써 주변 환경 소음과 누출음이 구별 가능하고 누출 위치(거리)의 탐지가 가능함을 밝혔다.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• 제12권4호
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• pp.1406-1416
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• 2017

In complex and large-scale industries, properly designed fault detection and identification (FDI) systems considerably improve safety, reliability and availability of target processes. In thermal power plants (TPPs), generating units operate under very dangerous conditions; system failures can cause severe loss of life and property. In this paper, we propose a bagged auto-associative kernel regression (AAKR)-based FDI approach for steam boilers in TPPs. AAKR estimates new query vectors by online local modeling, and is suitable for TPPs operating under various load levels. By combining the bagging method, more stable and reliable estimations can be achieved, since the effects of random fluctuations decrease because of ensemble averaging. To validate performance, the proposed method and comparison methods (i.e., a clustering-based method and principal component analysis) are applied to failure data due to water wall tube leakage gathered from a 250 MW coal-fired TPP. Experimental results show that the proposed method fulfills reasonable false alarm rates and, at the same time, achieves better fault detection performance than the comparison methods. After performing fault detection, contribution analysis is carried out to identify fault variables; this helps operators to confirm the types of faults and efficiently take preventive actions.

• 한국지능시스템학회논문지
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• 제26권3호
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• pp.246-252
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• 2016

화력발전소의 설비들은 매우 높은 온도와 압력의 환경에서 운전되므로, 설비고장은 상당한 인적 물적 손실로 이어진다. 그러므로 발전설비의 비정상정인 동작 상태를 사전에 확인할 수 있는 고장탐지 시스템이 필수적이다. 본 연구에서는, 화력발전소 증기보일러의 고장탐지를 위해서 마할라노비스 거리(Mahalanobis distance, MD)를 이용하였다. MD 기반의 고장탐지방법에서는, 비정상샘플은 정상샘플들로부터 멀리 떨어져 있다고 가정한다. 정상상태로 동작중인 대상시스템으로부터 수집된 다변량 샘플을 이용하여 평균벡터와 공분산행렬을 계산하고, MD값의 문턱값을 설정한다. 검증단계에서는, 평균벡터와 검증샘플들 간의 MD를 구한 후, 계산된 MD 값이 미리 설정된 문턱값보다 높으면 알람신호가 발생하게 된다. MD 기반의 고장탐지방법의 성능을 검증하기 위해서, 200MW 유연탄 화력발전소의 증기보일러 튜브누설로 인해서 발전정지 된 사례를 사용하였다. 실험결과는 MD 기반의 고장탐지기법이 발전정지가 발생하기 이전의 이상징후를 성공적으로 탐지할 수 있음을 보여준다.

• 한국압력기기공학회 논문집
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• 제16권1호
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• pp.37-41
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• 2020

The Nuclear containment building is a main safety-related structure that performs shielding and conservation functions to prevent highly radioactive materials from leakage to the outside environment in the case of various environmental conditions and postulated accidents. The containment building contains a reactor, steam generator, pressurizer, tank, reactor coolant system, auxiliary system and engineering safety system, and is designed so that highly radioactive materials above the limits specified in 10 CFR 100 do not escape to the outside environment in the case of LOCA(Loss of Coolant Accident) for instance. The containment metal liner plate(CLP) is a carbon steel plate with a nominal plate thickness of 6 mm, which functions as a mold for the wall and dome of the containment building when concrete is filled, fulfills airtightness to prevent leakage of seriously radioactive materials. In recent years, backside corrosion was found on the liner plate in some domestic nuclear power plants. The main cause of backside corrosion was unfilled concrete. In this paper, an inspection technique of assessing filling suitability for CLP backside concrete is developed. Results show that the validity of inspection technique for CLP backside concrete using vibration sensor is successfully verified.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제33권1호
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• pp.83-92
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• 2001

The properties of off-gas generated from vitrification process of ion-exchange resin were characterized. Theoretical composition and flow rate of the off-gas were calculated based on chemical composition of resin and it＇s burning condition inside CCM. The calculated off-gas flow rate was 67.9Nm$^3$/h at the burning rate of 40kg/h. And the composition of off-gas was avaluated as $CO_2$(41.4%), steam(40.0%), $O_2$(13.3%), NO(3.6%), and SO$_2$(1.6%) in order. Then, actual flow rate and composition of off-gas were measured during pilot-scale demonstration tests and the results were compared with theoretical values. The actual flow rate of off-gas was about 1.6 times higher than theoretical one. The difference between theoretical and actual flow rates was caused by the in-leakage of air to the system, and the in-leakage rate was evaluated as 36.3Nm$^3$/h. Because of continuous change in the combustion parameters inside CCM, during demonstration tests, the concentration of toxic gases showed wide fluctuation. However, the concentration of CO, a barometer of incompleteness of combustion inside CCM, was stabilized soon. The result showed quasi-equilibrium state was achieved two hours after feeding of resin.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제30권5호
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• pp.435-443
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• 1998

Leak-before-break(LBB) approach has been shown to be both cost effective and risk reductive when applied to high energy Piping in nuclear Power Plants. For the Korean Next Generation Reactor (KNGR) development, LBB application is considered for the Main Steam Line(MSL) piping inside containment. Unlike the primary system leakages, the MSL leak detection systems must be based on principles other than radioactivity measurements. Among humidity, heat and acoustic noise currently being considered as indicators of leakage, we explored humidity as an effective one and developed ceramic-based humidity sensor which can be qualified for LBB applications. The ceramic material, sintered and annealed MgCr$_2$O$_4$-TiO$_2$, is shown to increase its electrical conductivity drastically upon water vapor adsorption over the entire temperature range of interest. With this ceramic sensor specimen, we suggested installation-inside-the-piping method by which we can detect leakage more rapidly and sensitively. In this paper, we describe the progress in the development and characterization of ceramic humidity sensor for the LBB application to the MSL of KNGR.

• 한국안전학회지
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.32-37
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is for the sensitivity study f9r a Steam Generator Tube Rupture (SGTR) of the System-integrated Modular Advanced ReacTor for a Pilot (SMART-P) plant. The thermal hydraulic analysis of a SGIR for the Limiting Conditions for Operation (LCO) is performed using TASS/SMR code. The TASS/SMR code can calculate the core power, pressure, flow, temperature and other values of the primary and secondary system for the various initiating conditions. The major concern of this sensitivity study is not the minimum Critical Heat Flux Ratio(CHFR) but the maximum leakage amount from the primary to secondary sides at the steam generator. Therefore the break area causing the maximum accumulated break flow is researched for this reason. In the case of a SGIR for the SMART-p, the total integrated break flow is 11,740kg in the worst case scenario, the minimum CHFR is maintained at Over 1.3 and the hottest fuel rod temperature is below 606"I during the transient. It means that the integrity of the fuel rod is guaranteed. The reactor coolant system and the secondary system pressures are maintained below 18.7MPa, which is system design pressure.

• 한국압력기기공학회 논문집
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• 제16권1호
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• pp.42-48
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• 2020

The effect of improving the tensile and J-R fracture toughness properties of SA508 Gr.1a on the LBB margin for the main steam pipe is investigated. The material properties and microstructure images of the existing main steam piping material SA106 Gr.C used in domestic nuclear power plants and the newly selected material SA508 Gr.1a were compared. For each material, LBB margins were calculated and compared through finite element analysis and crack instability evaluation. The LBB margin of the improved SA508 Gr.1a is found to be greatly improved compared to that of the existing SA106 Gr.C and SA508 Gr.1a. This is because of the increased material's strength and J-R fracture toughness compared to the previous materials. In order to analyze the effect of physical property change on the LBB margin, the sensitivity of each LBB margin according to the variation of tensile strength and J-R fracture toughness was analyzed. The effect of the change in tensile strength was found to be greater than that of the change in fracture toughness. Therefore, an increase in strength significantly influenced the improvement of the LBB margin of the improved SA508 Gr.1a.

• 한국수소및신에너지학회논문집
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• 제29권4호
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• pp.307-316
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• 2018

In this study, the failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) of hydrogen production process by using the Thermococcus onnurineus NA1 was conducted and advanced methodology to compensate the weakness of previous FMEA methodology was applied. To bring out more quantitative and precise FMEA result for bio-hydrogen production process, fuzzy logic and potential loss cost estimated from ASPEN Capital Cost Estimator (ACCE) was introduced. Consequently, risk for releasing the flammable gases via internal leakage of steam tube which to control the operating temperature of main reactor was caution status in FMEA result without applying the fuzzification and ACCE. Moreover, probability of the steam tube plugging caused by solid property like medium was still caution status. As to apply the fuzzy logic and potential loss cost estimated from ACCE, a couple of caution status was unexpectedly upgraded to high dangerous status since the potential loss cost of steam tube for main reactor and decrease in product gases are higher than expected.