• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.95-104
• /
• 2004

Leaks in underground pipelines can cause social, environmental and economical problems. One of relevant countermeasures against leaks is to find and repair of leak points of the pipes. Leak noise is a good source to identify the location of leak points of the pipelines. Although there have been several methods to detect the leak location with leak noise, such as listening rods, hydrophones or ground microphones, they have not been so efficient tools. In this paper, accelermeters aroused to detect leak locations which could provide an easier and more efficient method. Filtering, signal processing and algorithm of raw input data from sensors for the detection of leak location are described. A 120m-long and a 70m-long experimental pipeline systems are installed and the results with the systems show that the algorithm with the accelerometers offers accurate pinpointing for leaks location detection. Theoretical analysis of sound wave propagation speed of water in underground pipes, which is critically important in leak locating, is also described.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
• /
• 2003.05a
• /
• pp.821-826
• /
• 2003

Leaks in underground pipelines can cause social, environmental and economical problems. One of a good contermeasures of leaks Is to find and repair of leak points of pipes. Leak noise is a good source to identify the location of leak points of pipelines. Although there have been several methods to detect the leak location with leak noise, such as listening rods, hydrophones or ground microphones, they were not so efficient tools beca. In this paper, two accelermeters are used to detect leak locations which could provide an easier and efficient method. The filtering, signal processing and algorithm is described for the detection of leak location. A 120m-long pipeline system for experiment is installed and the results with the system show that the algorithm with the two accelerometers gives very accurate pinpointing of leaks. Theoretical analysis of sound wave propagation speed in underground pipes is also described.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
• /
• 2004.05a
• /
• pp.985-990
• /
• 2004

Leak noise is a good source to identify the exact location of a leak point of underground water pipelines. Water leak generates broadband noise from a leak location and can be propagated to both directions of water pipes. This sound propagation due to leak in water pipelines is not a non-dispersive wave any more because of the surrounding pipes and soil. However, the necessity of long-range detection of this leak location makes to identify low-frequency acoustic waves rather than high frequency ones. Acoustic wave propagation coupled with surrounding boundaries including cast iron pipes is theoretically analyzed and the wave velocity was confirmed with experiment. The leak locations were identified both by the acoustic emission (AE) method and the cross-correlation method. In a short-range distance, both the AE method and cross-correlation method are effective to detect leak position. However, the detection for a long-range distance required a lower frequency range accelerometers only because higher frequency waves were attenuated very quickly with the increase of propagation paths. Two algorithms for the cross-correlation function were suggested, and a long-range detection has been achieved at real underground water pipelines longer than 300m.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
• /
• 2004.11a
• /
• pp.327-332
• /
• 2004

Leak noise is a good source to identify the exact location of a leak point of underground water pipelines. Water leak generates broadband noise from a leak location and can be propagated to both directions of water pipes. This sound propagation due to leak in water pipelines is not a non-dispersive wave any more because of the surrounding pipes and soil. However, the necessity of long-range detection of this leak location makes to identify low-frequency acoustic waves rather than high frequency ones. Acoustic wave propagation coupled with surrounding boundaries including cast iron pipes is theoretically analyzed and the wave velocity was confirmed with experiment. The leak locations were identified both by the acoustic emission (AE) method and the cross-correlation method. In a short-range distance, both the AE method and cross-correlation method are effective to detect leak position. However, the detection for a long-range distance required a lower frequency range accelerometers only because higher frequency waves were attenuated very quickly with the increase of propagation paths. Two algorithms for the cross-correlation function were suggested, and a long-range detection has been achieved at real underground water pipelines longer than loom.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
• /
• 2004.04a
• /
• pp.694-699
• /
• 2004

The purpose of this study is to estimate the availability of acoustic emission method to the internal leak of the valves at nuclear power plants. The acoustic emission method was applied to the valves at the site, and the background noise was measured for the abnormal plant condition. From the comparison of the background noise data with the experimental results as to relation between leak flow and acoustic signal, the minimum leak flow rates that can be detected by acoustic signal was suggested. When the background levels are higher than the acoustic signal, the method described below was considered that the analysis the remainder among the background noise frequency spectrum and the acoustic signal spectrum become a very useful leak detection method. A few experimental examples of the spectrum analysis that varied the background noise characteristic were given.

• Proceedings of the Korea Committee for Ocean Resources and Engineering Conference
• /
• 2004.05a
• /
• pp.360-364
• /
• 2004

The objective of this study is to estimate the feasibility of acoustic emission method Jar the internal leak from the valves in nuclear power plants. The acoustic emission method was applied to the valves at the site, and the background noise was measured for the abnormal plant condition. From the comparison of background noise data with the experimental results as to relation between leak flow and acoustic signal, the minimum leak flow rates that am be detected by acoustic signal was suggested. When the background noise level are higher than the acoustic signal, the method described below was considered that the analysis the remainder among the background noise frequency spectrum and the acoustic signal spectrum.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
• /
• 2003.04a
• /
• pp.84-89
• /
• 2003

Water leak is one of topics with great concern in Korea and many other countries, because of decreasing water supplies and the deterioration of old pipeworks. Correlation techniques have been widely used in leak detection of water pipes, which allow to locate a leak point based on the correlation of leak noise at two sites along water pipes. In this study, both the cross-correlation method and the conventional arrival time difference method are applied in order to analyze and to locate a leak point of a water pipe. In experiment, a 150 m of whole length waterwork pipeline system was constructed in a ground, and several types of leak noise were installed on the pipeline in order to control leak condition. Both the cross-correlation technique and the arrival time difference method showed favorable results at leak detection with the experimental pipeline system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
• /
• 2008.04a
• /
• pp.425-430
• /
• 2008

To verify the system performance of portable AE leak diagnosis system which can measure with moving conditions, AE activities such as RMS voltage level, AE signal trend, leak rate degree according to AE database, FFT spectrum were measured during operation on total 11 valves of the secondary system in nuclear power plant. AE activities were recorded and analyzed from various operating conditions including different temperature, type of valve, pressure difference, valve size and fluid. The results of this field study are utilized to select the type of sensors, the frequency band for filtering and thereby to improve the signal-to-noise ratio for diagnosis for diagnosis or monitoring of valves in operation. As the final result of application study above, portable type leak diagnosis system by AE was developed. The outcome of the study can be definitely applied as a means of the diagnosis or monitoring system for energy saving and prevention of accident for power plant valve. The purpose of this study is to verify availability of the acoustic emission in-situ monitoring method to the internal leak and operating conditions of the major valves at nuclear power plants. In this study, acoustic emission tests are performed when the pressurized temperature water and steam flowed through glove valve(main steam dump valve) and check valve(main steam outlet pump check valve) on the normal size of 12 and 18 ". The valve internal leak monitoring system for practical field was designed. The acoustic emission method was applied to the valves at the site, and the background noise was measured for the abnormal plant condition. To improve the reliability, a judgment of leak on the system was used various factors which are AE parameters, trend analysis, frequency analysis, voltage analysis and amplitude analysis of acoustic signal emitted from the valve operating condition internal leak.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
• /
• 2000.06a
• /
• pp.1829-1835
• /
• 2000

The experimental results of sodium-water reaction noise measurement in frequency range $1{/sim}200kHz$ are presented. The experiments of noise generation under the condition of sodium test facility, water leak rate $0.01{\sim}1.2g/s$ and temperature of sodium $250{\sim}500^{\circ}C$, were carried out. From theoretical study it is noted that the noise resonant attenuation on hydrogen bubbles in liquid sodium plays the significant role for leak noise spectra formation. Interaction of leak noise and hydrogen bubbles in sodium being accompanied by thermal, emission and viscosity energy dissipation was studied. Acoustic noise spectra were investigated from point of view of water leak detection in sodium/water steam generator. The results of sodium-water reaction noise absorption on hydrogen bubbles in liquid sodium by temperature $250{\sim}500^{\circ}C$ are presented. The theoretical model of noise absorption using the coefficients of attenuation was developed. From calculation the coefficients of attenuation were estimated.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.145-155
• /
• 2001

This simulation first allows us to define a transition zone from a bubble to jet mode of the argon out-flow and hereinafter to define a similar area for water-steam leak in the KALIMER SG (Korea Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor Steam Generator) using a water mock-up system, taking into account the KALIMER leak classification and tube bundle design, as a simulation of a real water-steam into sodium leak. in accordance with leak conditions in the KALIMER SG, the transition from bubbling to jetting is studied by means of turbulence regime simulation for argon out-flow through a very small orifice, which has the equivalent diameter of about 0.253 mm. finally the noise generation mechanism is explained from the existing experimental data. We also confirmed the possibility of micro-leak detection from the information of the bubbling mode through simulations and the experiment in this study.