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The phenomenon of fluid-elastic instability and the velocity at which a heat exchanger tube bundle becomes unstable, known as the critical velocity, was discovered and empirically determined based upon single-span, linearly supported tube bundles. In this idealized configuration, the normal modes are well separated in frequency with negligible cross-modal contribution to the critical velocity. As a result, a critical velocity can be defined and determined for each mode. In an industrial heat exchanger or steam generator, not only do the tube bundles have multiple spans, they are also supported in oversized holes. The normal modes of a multispan tube bundle are closely spaced in frequency and the nonlinear effect of the tube-support plate interaction further promotes cross-modal contribution to the tube responses. The net effect of cross-modal participation in the tube vibration is to delay the instability threshold. Tube bundles in industrial exchangers often have critical velocities far above what were determined in the laboratory based upon single-span, linearly supported tube bundles. In this paper, the authors attempt to solve this nonlinear problem in the time domain, using a time history modal superposition method. Time history forcing functions are first obtained by inverse Fourier transform of the power spectral density function used in classical turbulence-induced vibration analyses. The fluid-structure coupling force, which is dependent on the cross-flow velocity, is linearly superimposed onto the turbulence forcing function. The tube responses are then computed by direct integration in the time domain. By gradually increasing the cross-flow velocity, a threshold value is obtained at which the tube response just starts to diverge. The value of the cross-flow velocity at which the tube response starts to diverge is defined as the critical velocity of this nonlinearly supported, multispan tube bundle. [DOI: 10.1115/1.2748836] more...

To characterize flaws caused by intergranular attack (IGA) in steam generator tubes, the Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) Owners' Group sponsored a program to study different techniques to determine the depth of flaws based on eddy current data obtained from Bobbin coil probes. Techniques based on multiple regression analysis, neural network regression, and artificial intelligence have been reported elsewhere. This report summarizes the results based on application of a probabilistic neural network (PNN) to classify the flaws into groups of different depths. As a starter, only two classes were selected: Class 1 contained flaws with actual maximum depths below 40% through-wall; Class 2 contained flaws with depths above 40% through-wall. Classification was based on the Bobbin coil peak voltage and the corresponding phase angle data at the three different excitation frequencies of 600, 400, and 200 kHz. The results were compared with results from destructive examination. The study showed that best results were obtained when only the peak voltages were used to train the neural network. Based on this approach, the network classified the flaws correctly 72% of the time. Two methods of improving the network performance are proposed. [DOI: 10.1115/1.1480826] more...

Many nuclear steam generators have accumulated more than 10 effective-full-power-years of operation. Eddy-current inspections revealed that a number of these steam generator tubes, notably those located in high local cross-flow regions, have indications of wear at some support plate elevations after 5 to 10 yr of effective-full-power operations. In the last 5 yr, a number of technical papers on nonlinear tube bundle dynamics has been published to address the effect of tube and support plate interactions. At the same time, test data relating wear and tube wall thickness losses for different material combinations and different support plate geometries became available. based on the available data in the literature, as well as data obtained in the author's affiliation, this paper assesses the cumulative tube wall wear after 5, 10, and 15 effective-full-power years of operation of a typical commercial nuclear steam generator, using different wear models. It is hoped that this study will shed some light on the probable mechanism that caused the observed wear in today's operating nuclear steam generators. more...

This paper outlines a nonintrusive vibration measurement method using standard, off-the-shelf commercial ultrasonic instruments designed for flaw detections, together with digital signal analysis techniques. This method was incorporated into a commercial package designed for nonintrusive check valve monitoring and has been extensively tested in both the laboratory and the field. It can detect valve disk flutter as small as 0.02-in. (0.50 mm) peak-to-peak, without disassembly of the valve. In simulated tests, it quantitatively measured, remotely and nonintrusively, stationary vibration amplitudes as small as 0.0001 in. (0.0025 mm). Other potential applications include in-service vibration monitoring of internal components of nuclear reactors, steam generators, heat exchangers, pumps and valves, and in the laboratory or in the field, when the vibration frequency is too low for accelerometers and the strain is too low for strain gages. more...

A typical nuclear plant has between 60 and 115 safety-related check valves ranging from 2 to 30 in. The majority of these valves control water flow. Recent studies done by the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO), Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) found that many of these safety-related valves were not functioning properly. Typical problems found in these valves included disk flutter, backstop tapping, flow leakage, disk pin and hinge pin wear, or even missing disks. These findings led to INPO's Significant Operating Experience Report (SOER, 1986), and finally, NRC generic letter 89-04, which requires that all safety-related check valves in a nuclear plant be regularly monitored. In response to this need, the industry has developed various diagnostic equipment to monitor and test check valves, using technologies ranging from acoustics and ultrasonics to magnetic - even radiography has been considered. Of these, systems that depend on a combination of acoustic and ultrasonic techniques (Au-Yang et al., 1991) are among the most promising for two reasons: these two technologies supplement each other, making diagnosis of the check valves much more certain than any single technology, and this approach can be made nonintrusive. The nonintrusive feature allows the check valves to be monitored and diagnosed without being disassembled or removed from the piping system. This paper shows that by carefully studying the acoustic and ultrasonic signatures acquired from a check valve, either individually or in combination, an individual with the proper training and experience in acoustic and ultrasonic signature analyses can deduce the structural integrity of the check valve with good confidence. Most of the conclusions are derived from controlled experiments in the laboratory where the diagnosis can be verified. Other conclusions were based on test data obtained in the field. more...

Large structures in nuclear power plants are often separated by very thin fluid-filled cavities. For example, core support structures, thermal shields, and reactor vessels are usually large concentric cylindrical shells with annuli between them as small as 2 percent of the shell diameter. Such thin cavities cause the structures to be very strongly coupled, and such coupling must be accurately modeled to predict the dynamic responses of new designs to turbulence, pump acoustic loading, loss-of-coolant accidents, and seismic events. This paper summarizes a very versatile and efficient method of solving these problems with small personal computers. Among other things, this method uses component modal synthesis with the hybrid approach, and the solution of the resulting unsymmetric eigenvalue problem for the coupled vibration modes. System responses are then found in terms of 'right' and 'left' eigenvectors. Comparisons with test results are also presented. more...