Display, visualization, and processing tool for channel distortion and cell friction mitigation

An apparatus generating a graphical image of a core of a boiling water reactor (BWR) using at least one data set of channel deformation data, said apparatus comprising:

• a computer system including a display device for presenting the graphical image and a processor generating the graphical image using the at least one data set;
• said graphical image of the core includes symbolic representations of control cells arranged in the core wherein the representations are arranged in the core image corresponding to the locations of control cells in the core of the BWR, and
• a viewer software tool executed by the processor which accesses the at least one data set and determines a location in the core for each of the symbolic representations of control cells and determines which control cell representations to include in the graphical image based on channel deformation data for each cell.

A method for generating a graphical image of a core of a boiling water reactor (BWR) using at least one data set of channel deformation data and a processor to access the data and generate the graphical image, said method comprising:

• accessing at least one data set of a plurality of data sets, wherein the accessed data set includes data regarding channel deformation in a plurality of channels in the core and regarding a location of the channel with respect to control blades in the core;
• processing the accessed data to identify the surfaces of the channels that are adjacent to one of the control blades and to collect data regarding channel deformation for the identified channel surfaces, and
• generating the graphical image of the core, said graphical includes symbolic representations of control blades arranged in the core, indicia identify each control blade, and indicia regarding deformation of channels adjacent each control blade.