Sung-Keun Park’s research while affiliated with Electric Power Research Institute and other places

A large amount of deposit was detected at a 6-in. check valve installed in a nuclear power plant. To identify the origin of the deposit, the chemical composition of the deposit was analyzed. In this paper, in order to find out the degradation mechanism of the 6-in. check valve, vibration and temperature monitoring of the check valve are carried out during plant heat up and standby conditions. And some degradation mechanisms of the check valve are investigated. Results show that the degradation was caused by valve chattering due to the acoustic resonance.

The valve performance has been evaluated from the theoretical equation based on design information such as packing thrust, spring preload and friction coefficient(). The accuracy of those data can be lower than that of vendor's initial design data. Especially, the friction coefficient can be degraded with time than the original condition and the valve performance calculated using the previous friction coefficient can not be available. Accordingly, this paper is describing a new performance evaluation method of valve based on diagnostic test data which are acquired from a site valve tested in static and dynamic conditions. Especially, this paper provides a new method using friction coefficient() which is derived from the diagnostic test data acquired in the valve's design basis condition.

For the purpose of monitoring by ultrasonic test of the ball bearing conditions in rotating machinery, a system for their diagnosis was developed. ultrasonic technique is used to detect abnormal conditions in the bearing system. And various data such as frequency spectrum, energy and amplitude of ultrasonic signals, and ultrasonic parameters were acquired during experiments with the simulated ball bearing system. Based on the above results and practical application for power plant, algorithms and judgement criteria for diagnosis system was established. Bearing diagnosis system is composed of four parts as follows : sensing part for ultrasonic sensor and preamplifier, signal processing part for measuring frequency spectrum, energy and amplitude, interface part for connecting ultrasonic signal to PC using A/D converter, graphic display and software part for display of bearing condition and for managing of diagnosis program.

Thermal output in a nuclear power plant is verified by a calorimetric heat balance on the secondary system of the power plant. The calorimetry involves the precise measurement of the feed water flow rate which should be designed to have ±1:0% of uncertainty. However, the indication of feed water flow rate obtained by a differential pressure measurement across a venturi can be affected by instrument errors, fouling, or a poorly developed velocity profile. These factors can lead to an inaccurate mass flow rate and consequently, an inaccurate estimate of power. The purpose of this study is to develop verification methods with accuracy better than ±0:5% for high-precision flow measurement to be used for measuring feed water flow rate. Such an improvement saves electric power. For a typical Korean nuclear power plant of 1,000MW, 10MW would be potentially saved. This chemical tracer method is a testing process using a tracer, which can be applied to quantify losses in electrical output caused by incorrect measurement of feed water flow rate. This method has a good response to changes in the flow rate. An accuracy better than 0.5% is expected for feed water flow measurement, provided that the feed water system is stabilized during the test.

Stem friction coefficient and valve factor are very important parameters for the evaluation of valve performance. In this study, the characteristics of stem friction coefficient and valve factor are analyzed, and thor bounding value is determined. The hydraulic testing is performed for many flexible wedge gate valves in the plant and statistical method is applied to the determination of bounding value. According to the results of this study, stem friction coefficient does not change much with differential pressure, and the bounding value of closing stroke is higher than that of opening stroke. The valve factor of valves with high differential pressure is higher than that of valves with medium differential pressure. It means valve factor is more sensitive to the differential pressure than the stem friction coefficient. Valve factor of the closing stroke is higher than that of opening stroke due to piston effect.

It is necessary to monitor periodically the operability of safety-related motor-operated valves (MOVs) in nuclear power plants. However, acquiring diagnostic signals for MOVs is very difficult, and doing so requires an excessive amount of time, effort, and expenditure. This paper introduces an accurate and economical method to evaluate the performance of MOVs remotely. The technique to be utilized includes electrical measurements and signal processing to estimate the motor torque and the stem thrust, which have been cited as the two most effective parameters in diagnosing MOVs by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The motor torque is calculated by using electrical signals, which can be measured in the motor control center (MCC). Some advantages of using the motor torque signature over other signatures are examined. The stem thrust is calculated considering the characteristics of the MOV and the estimated motor torque. The basic principle of estimating stem thrust is explained. The developed method is implemented in diagnostic equipment, namely, the Motor Operated Valve Intelligent Diagnostic System (MOVIDS), which is used to obtain the accuracy of and to validate the applicability of the developed method in nuclear power plants. Finally, the accuracy of the developed method is presented and some examples applied to field data are discussed.

Stem-stem nut coefficient of friction(COF) in motor-operated gate/globe valves is one of the important factors which determine the performance of the valve/actuators. The COF is affected greatly by the type and condition of the stem-stem nut lubricants, environmental parameters, surface condition of the stem/stem-nuts, and the number of strokes after the lubrication. In this paper, the measured data of the COFs at stem threads of some safety-related motor-operated gate/globe valves in domestic nuclear power plants are presented. In addition, the performance of the lubricants is evaluated by comparing the COFs among those valves. The results show that the measured COF at torque switch trip are higher than the unwedging COF and conservatively applicable to the unwedging COF. It is also shown that the lubricating performance based on the measured COFs varies with the lubricants.