Benchmarking of deformation and vibration measurement techniques for nuclear fuel pins

Pauw, Ben De; Vanlanduit, Steve; Tichelen, Katrien Van; Geernaert, Thomas; Chah, Karima; Berghmans, Francis

doi:10.1016/j.measurement.2013.07.003

Cited by 26 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…The resulting fuel pin weight was close to 900 g. Due to the limited space between the individual fuel pins (only 1.8 mm) and the anticipated small vibration amplitudes, optical fibre sensors are one of the very few options to measure vibrations in the fuel assembly. In our previous work [5,17,20] we demonstrated that FBGs are sufficiently sensitive to record the fuel assembly vibrations and that their useful time in a LBE environment is sufficient to carry out meaningful measurements. We shortly recall that a FBG consists of a periodic variation of the refractive index of the core of the optical fibre and is characterized by a resonance optical wavelength at which it reflects light, referred to as the Bragg wavelength λB [21,22].…”

Section: Manufacturing and Mounting Of The Instrumented Fuel Assemblymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since no moving components or tuning of optical parameters such as the light source wavelength are required, very stable measurements can be conducted with this device. The latter was required for the vibration measurements since the expected wavelength fluctuation was small (as illustrated in [20,29]) and signal degradation due to the environment is expected to occur (as explained in more detail in [5,17]). As explained earlier, we accommodated for this degradation in the interrogation by using a more intricate phase-correlation based wavelength shift detection technique to analyse the acquired FBG spectra, and to calculate λ B [25][26][27].…”

Section: Egress Of Optical Fibres and Interrogationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Characterizing Flow-Induced Vibrations of Fuel Assemblies for Future Liquid Metal Cooled Nuclear Reactors Using Quasi-Distributed Fibre-Optic Sensors

et al. 2017

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Excessive vibration of nuclear reactor components, such as the heat exchanger or the fuel assembly should be avoided as these can compromise the lifetime of these components and potentially lead to safety hazards. This issue is particularly relevant to new reactor designs that use liquid metal coolants. However, identifying adequate sensors or techniques that can be successfully applied to record the vibrations of the components in a flow of liquid metal at elevated temperatures is very challenging. In this paper, we demonstrate the precise measurements of the vibrations of a very representative mock-up of a fuel assembly in a lead-bismuth eutectic cooled installation using quasi-distributed fibre Bragg grating (FBG) based sensors. The unique properties of these sensors, in combination with a dedicated integration and mounting approach, allows for accounting of the severe geometrical constraints and allows characterizing the vibration of the fuel assembly elements under nominal operation conditions. To that aim, we instrumented a single fuel pin within the fuel assembly with 84 FBGs, and conducted spectral measurements with an acquisition rate of up to 5000 measurements per second, enabling the monitoring of local strains of a few µε. These measurements provide the information required to assess vibration-related safety hazards.

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Section: Manufacturing and Mounting Of The Instrumented Fuel Assemblymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Egress Of Optical Fibres and Interrogationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterizing Flow-Induced Vibrations of Fuel Assemblies for Future Liquid Metal Cooled Nuclear Reactors Using Quasi-Distributed Fibre-Optic Sensors

et al. 2017

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“…In previous studies, we have already shown that these sensors are sufficiently sensitive to pick up the fuel pin vibration (De Pauw et al, 2013) and that their useful time in a LBE environment is sufficient to carry out meaningful measurements (Pauw et al, 2014;De Pauw et al, 2015). These studies focused on a particular type of fibre sensors called fibre Bragg gratings (FBGs).…”

Section: Integration Of Fibre Bragg Gratingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temperature monitoring using fibre optic sensors in a lead-bismuth eutectic cooled nuclear fuel assembly

Pauw

Lamberti

Ertveldt

et al. 2016

Nuclear Engineering and Design

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“…FBG sensors represent a better alternative to strain gauges. The FBG capability to perform modal analysis has been investigated by different authors [ 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 ]. However, few works exist where embedded FBG sensors have been used to measure the modal characteristics of real-life composite structures [ 36 , 37 , 38 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic Strain Measurements on Automotive and Aeronautic Composite Components by Means of Embedded Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors

Lamberti

Chiesura

Luyckx

et al. 2015

Sensors

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The measurement of the internal deformations occurring in real-life composite components is a very challenging task, especially for those components that are rather difficult to access. Optical fiber sensors can overcome such a problem, since they can be embedded in the composite materials and serve as in situ sensors. In this article, embedded optical fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors are used to analyze the vibration characteristics of two real-life composite components. The first component is a carbon fiber-reinforced polymer automotive control arm; the second is a glass fiber-reinforced polymer aeronautic hinge arm. The modal parameters of both components were estimated by processing the FBG signals with two interrogation techniques: the maximum detection and fast phase correlation algorithms were employed for the demodulation of the FBG signals; the Peak-Picking and PolyMax techniques were instead used for the parameter estimation. To validate the FBG outcomes, reference measurements were performed by means of a laser Doppler vibrometer. The analysis of the results showed that the FBG sensing capabilities were enhanced when the recently-introduced fast phase correlation algorithm was combined with the state-of-the-art PolyMax estimator curve fitting method. In this case, the FBGs provided the most accurate results, i.e., it was possible to fully characterize the vibration behavior of both composite components. When using more traditional interrogation algorithms (maximum detection) and modal parameter estimation techniques (Peak-Picking), some of the modes were not successfully identified.

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Benchmarking of deformation and vibration measurement techniques for nuclear fuel pins

Cited by 26 publications

References 7 publications

Characterizing Flow-Induced Vibrations of Fuel Assemblies for Future Liquid Metal Cooled Nuclear Reactors Using Quasi-Distributed Fibre-Optic Sensors

Characterizing Flow-Induced Vibrations of Fuel Assemblies for Future Liquid Metal Cooled Nuclear Reactors Using Quasi-Distributed Fibre-Optic Sensors

Temperature monitoring using fibre optic sensors in a lead-bismuth eutectic cooled nuclear fuel assembly

Dynamic Strain Measurements on Automotive and Aeronautic Composite Components by Means of Embedded Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors

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