Architecture for Online Prognostics for Pumps and Valves in Nuclear Power Plants

Abstract

The health of the safety-related equipment in a nuclear power plant is crucial to safe and reliable operation of the plant. To achieve this, a number of monitoring systems have been equipped and strict guidelines and procedures applied. Recently, several real-time diagnostics and predictive diagnostic concepts have been proposed. This paper presents an architecture for online prognostics to monitor, diagnose and prognose feed water pumps and pneumatic control valves in nuclear power plants. We describe the architecture from the following points: system design and process. Diagnostic method with positioner model for a double-acting pneumatic control valve is also presented. A pilot system, developed based on the proposed architecture and diagnostic method, is applied to the pneumatic control valve in a nuclear power plant. The result shows that the proposed architecture can be applied to online and real-time diagnostics and prognostics.