Shutdown cooling pump vortex detection system
AssigneeCombustion Engineering, Inc.
InventorRobert P. Harvey
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method of detecting air vortexing and coriolis effect vortex-created cavitation in a shutdown cooling system drain pump of a nuclear power plant during midloop operation where the plant includes a horizontal hot leg having a drain pipe connected from the lower region thereof to a drain pump which includes attaching transducers of a portable clamp-on ultrasonic flowmeter to the drain pipe to measure and detect flow-void-created disruptions in the flowmeter ultrasonic signal and providing a remote alarm triggered by the disrupted signal.
Claims5
A system of detection of air vortexing and coriolis effect vortex-created cavitation in a shutdown cooling system drain pump of a nuclear power plant during midloop operation comprising:
- a main pipe to conduct coolant from a nuclear reactor to a steam generator, said main pipe being substantially horizontal and having an upper region and a lower region;
- a drain pipe connected at the lower region of the main pipe to conduct coolant from the lower region to a drain pump;
- a portable clamp-on ultrasonic flowmeter with its sensors attached to the drain pipe between the main pipe and the drain pump for the measurement and detection of a flow-void-created-disruption in the flowmeter signal;
- and,
- an alarm which is triggered by said disrupted signal.
A method of detecting air vortexing and coriolis effect vortex-created cavitation in a shutdown cooling system drain pump of a nuclear power plant during midloop operation, said plant including a main pipe to conduct coolant from a nuclear reactor to a steam generator, said main pipe being substantially horizontal and having an upper region and a lower region with a drain pipe connected at the lower region of the main pipe to conduct coolant from the lower region to a drain pump, which comprises the steps of:
- attaching the sensors of a portable clamp-on ultrasonic flowmeter to the drain pipe between the main pipe and the drain pump;
- measuring and detecting flow-void-created-disruptions in the flowmeter ultrasonic signal;
- and,
- providing an alarm triggered by such disrupted signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.