Monitoring a Nuclear Research Reactor with Traditional and Non-Traditional Vibration Measurements

Date: 4/26/2019

Time: 04:30 PM

Room: Elliott Bay

Distributed Acoustic Sensors (DAS) with fiber optics presents new opportunities for monitoring vibrational signals by allowing for closely spaced sensors to be placed over large distances to collect data in the kilohertz range and potentially resolve spatial locations of sources. However, the fiber optic sensors tend to have higher sensitivity to environmental conditions relative to traditional seismo-acoustic (SA) sensors as well as coupling of acoustic and seismic signals together in an unknown manner. Ground-based DAS sensors, as well as traditional SA sensors, have measured multiple power-up events of the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR), a research reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory that operates at a power of 85 MW. Vibrations from cooling towers associated with the reactor’s secondary cooling loop produce unique seismic and acoustic signatures during different stages of reactor operations. Statistical analysis is used to compare features extracted from the DAS measurements and traditional SA measurements to determine coupling of seismic and acoustic signatures, in addition to identifying sensitivities to DAS deployment configuration and environmental effects.

Presenting Author: Nidhi K. Parikh

Authors