Westinghouse Electric Corporation

Sam S Palusamy

Charles B Bond

John C Schmertz

David H Roarty

Douglas A Bauman

Norman R Singleton

Elwyn L Cranford, Iii

William Ciaramitaro

Theodore J Batt

William T Bogard

Dali Li

John N Chirigos

George J Bohm

Chuang Y Yang

John A Tgortorice

Thomas A Kozlosky

An integrated information system is provided for a plant with interactive processes running in functional equipment subsets, such as a nuclear power generation plant. Sensors are operatively coupled to monitor processes and equipment in the plant, collecting sample data for assessing operational conditions and for predicting maintenance requirements based on loading of the equipment. One or more processors access the sample data and compares present conditions to diagnostic specifications, technical specifications and historical data stored in memory and indexed to equipment subsets and functional operating groups. The processor(s) generate prioritized reports to alert users to potential operational and/or maintenance problems. In addition to the prioritized reports, the processor accesses and outputs to the users reports of the diagnostic and technical specifications applicable to the process parameters exhibiting the potential problems. These specifications are provided in successive levels of detail and are cross referenced between related processes and related items of equipment. The information system integrates operations, maintenance, engineering and management interests in a common database of information via network-coupled data terminals.

Plant maintenance with predictive diagnostics

Temperature transducers are mounted on the outside surface of a containment system such as a pipe to detect thermal stratification and fluctuations thereof. The transducers are mounted in an arc lying in a plane perpendicular to the flow direction in the system at each of several positions separated along the flow direction. The data obtained by the temperature transducers is supplied to a computer for calculation of stress using transfer functions summing changes in both temperature and position over time. The stress due to abnormal thermal loads is combined with other stress on the system so that fatigue usage and fatigue crack growth can be calculated.

Abnormal thermal loading effects monitoring system

A nuclear reactor monitoring system includes incore and excore neutron detectors for producing neutron noise signals and system data including at least one of reactor coolant pump motor current, temperature and pressure of the reactor coolant system and pressurizer pressure and means for diagnosing conditions of the reactor internals and core support structures by comparing analyzed instrumentation signatures. The signatures may be derived from scale model test data, plant test data, analytical model results and trending analysis results. Analyses performed by the system include time and frequency domain analyses of the neutron noise signals and the system data. The analyzed data are compared with rules in a rules base of an expert system to generate a diagnosis of the condition of the reactor internals and core support structures and action recomendations for maintenance of the nuclear reactor.

Reactor internals and core support monitoring system

A system for analyzing containment integrity of a containment system includes data storage for inspection data and characteristic data and a data evaluation processor for evaluating the inspection data. A data acquisition system is used for periodically obtaining wall thicknesses of selected components in the containment system. After data validation, the actual wall thicknesses are stored as the inspection data in the data storage. The data evaluation processor analyzes the present pipe wall integrity in light of stress calculated from the characteristic data including operational conditions and material properties. In addition, the data evaluation processor analyzes the trend in change of wall thickness to forecast future wall thicknesses.

Corrosion-erosion trend monitoring and diagnostic system

The present invention is a cycle monitoring system and method that acquires, logs and analyzes analog and/or digital signals from component sensors in a process control plant such as a nuclear power plant. The system continuously monitors the sensors and records steady-state and transient phenomena. Compression of the data is performed to reduce storage load. The compression ratio for transient data is driven by a threshold indicating a measurement signficant to stress determination. Transient data is retained at a higher sampling rate, so that the parameters of transient such as the maximum value can be determined for stress analysis. The stress analysis determines pressure and thermal stresses which are used to calculate a usage factor which indicates the stress age and thus the remaining life of a component. The system provides estimates of fatigue accumulation associated with selected locations of critical power plant components. Measurements of plant process and response parameters are used to provide data for calculation of fatigue accumulation. The system includes a computer containing a database that includes thresholds and response characteristics of the plant components to varying types of stress. The process required to calculate fatigue for monitored components and locations uses Duhamels integral to calculate transient stress, combines the transient stress with other stresses to produce a usage factor from stress ranges designating when a stress cycle has occurred. The system can be used to plan routine maintenance, repair and replacement decision, and to justify alternative plant operation modes and life extension.

Cycle monitoring method and apparatus

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Murrysville, PA, United States of America

Sam S Palusamy