An advanced method for determination of loss of coolant accident in nuclear power plants

Abstract

A major objective in reactor design is to provide the capability to withstand a wide range of postulated events without exceeding specified safety limits. Assessment of the consequence of hypothetical loss of coolant accident (LOCA) in primary circuit is an essential element to address fulfilment of acceptance criteria. In addition, finding the position of rupture, one could manage accident in a right direction. In this work, the transient vibration signal from a pipe rupture is used to determine the position of LOCA. A finite element formulation (Galerkin Method) is implemented to include the effect of fluid-structure interaction (FSI). The coupled equations of fluid motion and pipe displacement are solved. The obtained results are in good agreement with published data. Fast Fourier transform (FFT) provides an alternate way of representing data. Instead of representing vibration signal amplitude as a function of time, the signal is represented by the amount of information, which is contained at different frequencies. The most of frequencies of structure and fluid coupled are presented in the FFT of structural response and through it the dominant frequency of excitation is obtained. Furthermore, the power spectral density (PSD), a measurement of energy at various frequencies is worked out. MATLAB software is used to convert signals from the time to frequency domain and to obtain PSD of signals.