Measurement Strategy of the Water Leakage into a Low Pressure Sodium Boundary for a Liquid Metal Reactor

Abstract

This paper deals with the measurement strategy of a water leakage into sodium boundary for a liquid metal reactor. There are several methods including the chemical sensing method, pressure sensing methods, and non-destructive method including the acoustic monitoring technique to measure the leakage. As for the results of the analysis with respect to the event propagation charateristics, it has been recommended that the acoustic method has a capability to detect small and intermediate leaks within required response time of 10 seconds. A leak of one gram/sec could be currently detected within the required response time of 10 seconds with a high reliability. In the case of less than a one gram/sec leakage, the response time could not meet our requirements due to a complicated signal processing logic. Thus, the system configuration for a fast processing of a leak detection has been recommended. It is expected that this configuration of the leak detection system could reduce the response time due to the distributed and parallel processing scheme.

Demonstration of an improved passive acoustic fault detection method on recordings from the Phénix steam generator operating at full power

“…The noises of small leaks will be due to aeroacoustic jet noise, fluid-structure interaction, sodium-water reaction (for the steam generator case) and the acoustic effects of bubble populations (absorption, scattering, diffusion and resonance) [3], [4]. The relative importance of these effects will depend on the leak rate, leak geometry, ambient conditions as well as the acoustic wave propagation path from the leak position to the acoustic sensor.…”

Fault Detection Using Acoustic Methods for the Sodium-Water Reaction Monitoring in a Liquid Metal Reactor

“…This paper deals with the acoustic detection methods including a passive type and an active type. Based on the previous studies regarding the general concepts of the acoustic leak detection system for the LMR [4,5] the fault detection capabilities of the several signal processing have been evaluated. In addition, the basic characteristics of an ultrasound attenuation have been evaluated when an ultrasonic beam passes through the complicated structure of the steam generator system of the LMR.…”