• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.423-440
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• 2001

For sodium cooling liquid metal reactors during the last 25 years, it was most important to verify the safety of the steam generator, which absolutely requires a water leak detection system with fine sensitivity and response. This study describes the structure and leak classification of the HAMMER (Korea Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor) steam generator, compared with other classifications, and explains the effects of leak development. The requirements and experimental situations for the development of the KALIMER acoustic leak detection system (KADS) which detects micro leaks, not intermediate leaks, are introduced. We proposed four frequency bands, 1∼8kHz, 8∼20kHz, 20∼40kHz and 40∼200kHz, split effectively for analyzing the detected acoustic leak signals obtained from the sodium-water reaction model or water model in the mock-up system.

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

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.307-313
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• 2015

Leak detection in a pipeline usually involves acoustic emission sensors such as contact type sensors. These contact type sensors pose difficulties for installation and cannot operate in areas having high temperature and radiation. Therefore, recently, many researchers have studied the leak detection phenomenon by using a camera. Leak detection by using a camera has the advantages of long distance monitoring and wide area surveillance. However, the conventional leak detection method by using difference images often mistakes the vibration of a structure for a leak. In this paper, we propose a method for steam leakage detection by using the moving average of difference images and histogram analysis. The proposed method can separate the leakage and the vibration of a structure. The working performance of the proposed method is verified by comparing with experimental results.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.20 no.9
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• pp.828-833
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• 2010

Steam leakage is one of the major issues for the structural fracture of pipes of nuclear power plants. Therefore a method to inspect a large area of piping systems quickly and accurately is needed. In this paper, we proposed the method for the detecting steam leakage by using image signal processing. Our basic idea come from heat shimmer which shine with a soft light that looks as if it shakes slightly. To test the performance of this technique, experiments have been performed for simple heat source and steam generator. Results show that the proposed technique is quite powerful in the steam leak detection.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.25-34
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• 2020

As leakage in nuclear power plants could cause a variety of problems, it is very critical to monitor leakage from the safety point of view. Accordingly, a new type of leak detection system is currently being developed and flow characteristics of the sampling and transportation system are investigated by using numerical analysis as a part of the development process in this study. The results showed that the steam mass fraction varied according to the effect of the gap between the insulation and piping component, transportation velocity, and material properties of porous media during the sampling and transportation process. The results of this study should be useful for understanding flow characteristics of the sampling and transportation system and its design and application.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.384-390
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• 2016

It is important to have a pipeline leak-detection system that determines the presence of a leak and quickly identifies its location. Current leak detection methods use a acoustic emission sensors, microphone arrays, and camera images. Recently, many researchers have been focusing on using cameras for detecting leaks. The advantage of this method is that it can survey a wide area and monitor a pipeline over a long distance. However, conventional methods using camera monitoring are unable to target an exact leak location. In this paper, we propose a method of detecting leak locations using leak-detection results combined with multi-frame analysis. The proposed method is verified by experiment.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.9
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• pp.3122-3125
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• 2021

Electromagnetic vortex flowmeter is a new type of instrument for detecting leakage of steam generator, and the signal processing method based on the envelope to calculate energy ratio can effectively detect bubbles in sodium flow. The signal processing method is not affected by changes in the amplitude of the sensor output signal, which is caused by changes in magnetic field strength and other factors. However, the detection sensitivity of the electromagnetic vortex flowmeter is reduced. To this end, a signal processing method based on inverse Fourier transform to calculate energy ratio is proposed. According to the difference between the frequency band of the bubble noise signal and the flow signal, only the amplitude in the frequency band of the flow signal is retained in the frequency domain, and then the flow signal is obtained by the inverse Fourier transform method, thereby calculating the energy ratio. Using this method to process the experimental data, the results show that it can detect 0.1 g/s leak rate of water in the steam generator, and its performance is significantly better than that of the signal processing method based on the envelope to calculate energy ratio.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.75-76
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1996.11a
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• pp.183-190
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• 1996

Leak-before-break(LBB) approach has been shown to be both cost and risk effective by reducing maintenance cost and occupational exposure when applied to high energy piping in nuclear power plants. For Korean Next Generation Reactor(KNGR) development, LBB is considered for the Main Steam Line(MSL) piping inside containment. Unlike the reactor coolant piping leakages which can be detected by particulate and gaseous radiation monitoring, main steam line leak detection systems must be based on principles that do not involve radioactivity. Ceramics are widely used as humidity sensor materials which can be further developed for nuclear applications. In this paper, we describe the progress in the development of ceramic humidity sensors for use with the main steam lines of KNGR.

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