Wireless Sensors for Equipment Health and Condition Monitoring in Nuclear Power Plants

Wireless sensors are becoming very popular in industrial processes for process measurement and control, condition monitoring, predictive maintenance, and management of accidents and mishaps. Over the next few years, these wireless sensors are targeted for full implementation in nuclear power plants, for equipment health and condition monitoring applications. However, to date, little work has been done in screening, qualifying, and analyzing the avalanche of data that will come from wireless sensors. This project will develop techniques for cleaning the data of extraneous effects and other anomalies, qualifying the data for such characteristics as Gaussian (normal) distribution, synchronizing the data, analyzing the data in both time and frequency domains, interpreting results, and reporting to the end user. In addition, guidelines will be developed to determine to the optimum location and installation of the wireless sensors, in order to provide the best data for equipment health and condition monitoring. Phase I will involve an experimental effort to employ wireless sensors in an existing laboratory loop. The loop data will be screened, qualified, and analyzed, in order to evaluate the algorithms and software packages and to establish baseline signatures for determining the condition of equipment in the loop. Commercial Applications and other Benefits as described by the awardee: In addition to nuclear power plants, the techniques should be useful to a wide array of industrial plants such as chemical refineries, power plants, manufacturing facilities, as well as the aerospace industry, military, government laboratories, and many other installations, especially those with heavy equipment and large machinery. The result will be more efficient process operation and maintenance, and improved safety of workers and the general public.