Validation of deformation and vibration measurement techniques for nuclear fuel pins

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

Research outputpeer-review

Abstract

The Belgian Nuclear Research Centre SCK•CEN plans to construct a new reactor (name MYRRHA). This reactor will be able to sustain nuclear fission reactions driven by a proton accelerator and a liquid eutectic mixture of lead and bismuth as spallation source and coolant. The flow of the coolant will produce vibrations in the reactor core containing the fuel assembly that consists of a matrix of fuel pins. Information about these vibrations is very useful to determine the lifetime of the fuel pins and the reactor core. In this paper we report on the performance evaluation of different vibration sensors considered for measuring the flow induced vibrations on a fuel pin mockup. The sensors include a SLDV, grid method, FBGs, resistive strain gages and 2 types of accelerometers. The first show that the SLDV outperforms the other sensor types. However, considering the constraints in the reactor we believe that FBGs are the best option to try to integrate in the vessel. Moreover, these sensors exhibit a quality factor up to 99.5% in the amplitude range of interest.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationICEM15: 15th international conference on experimental mechanics proceedings
Place of PublicationPorto, Portugal
Volume1
StatePublished - Jul 2013
Event15th International Conference on Experimental Mechanics - Porto
Duration: 22 Jul 201227 Jul 2012

Conference

Conference15th International Conference on Experimental Mechanics
Country/TerritoryPortugal
CityPorto
Period2012-07-222012-07-27

Cite this