Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects
Date of Graduation
5-2011
College
Nuclear Engineering
Major 1
Honors Nuclear Engineering
First Advisor
Dr. Grossbeck
Recommended Citation
Black, Brad Patrick; Simmons, Laura; Chapman, John; Jennings, Jared; Johnson, Jacob; Paul, Brian; and Woods, Kyle, "Vibration Fault Detection for Steam Generator Tubing" (2011). Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj/1473
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Comments
The detection of flaws within steam generator tubing is an important part of safety in a nuclear plant as it could potentially lead to release of radioactive material if unchecked. The current test method for testing these tubes is expensive and time consuming; however, as sound has been used to detect flaws successfully in other applications, an alternative method for using acoustics and accelerometers to detect flaws is what has been explored in this project. Preliminary results of testing with a simple hollow steel tube have given promising results of detecting a hole as small as 7.66% of the tube diameter. Testing of a model steam generator with four tubes led showed promising results using a motor to vibrate the system.