Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090252272 | Advanced Digital Control Rod Position Indication System with Rod Drop Monitoring for Nuclear Power Plants - An advanced digital rod position indication (ADRPI) system having rod drop monitoring capability. When a reactor trip occurs, the ADRPI system derives the rod drop time from the signals induced in the detector coils by the falling drive rods. The ADRPI system is linked to the reactor trip breaker to provide a reference point to allow accurate timing of the rod drop times. | 10-08-2009 |
20110184701 | Pitot Tube Diagnostic System - A pitot tube diagnostic system and method for determining the health of a pitot tube is disclosed. The pitot tube diagnostic system is configured to be temporarily connectable to or permanently installable in an airplane's pitot-static system, which allows the pitot tube diagnostic system to be utilized during pre-flight inspections and/or in-flight conditions. The pitot tube diagnostic system is in electrical communication with the pitot-static system for acquisition of output signals and analysis thereof. Thus, the pitot-static diagnostic system is able to diagnose anomalies in the pitot-static systems that are representative of the overall health and efficiency of the pitot-static system. | 07-28-2011 |
20110299562 | Diverse and Redundant Resistance Temperature Detector - A diverse and redundant resistance temperature detector (“D&R RTD”) is provided. The D&R RTD is utilized in obtaining temperature readings in environments, such as fluids and gasses, by measuring electrical characteristics of the D&R RTD that are influenced by the temperature. Furthermore, the D&R RTD's are arranged such that a plurality of measurements can be obtained, which provides sufficient diversity and redundancy of the measurements for enhanced diagnostics to be performed, such as optimization for fast dynamic response, calibration stability, in-situ response time testability, and in-situ calibration testability. | 12-08-2011 |
20130148772 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS OF MONITORING CONTROL RODS OF A NUCLEAR POWER PLANT - A diagnostic system to monitor digital rod position indication (DRPI) signals of a DRPI system of a nuclear power plant, including a digital diagnostic unit connected between a DRPI display cabinet and a DRPI data cabinet of the DRPI system to monitor digital rod position signals of the DRPI data cabinet. The digital rod position signals include digital rod address signals and digital rod position data signals such that the digital diagnostic unit detects signal level variation and signal timing variation of the digital rod address signals and the digital rod position data signals to determine rod position errors of the DRPI system. | 06-13-2013 |
20130177123 | Control Rod Position Indication Systems and Methods for Nuclear Power Plants - Systems and methods of monitoring position information of a control rod in a nuclear reactor, including detecting an output signal induced by movement of a control rod with respect to at least one detection coil of the control rod, the output signal having identifiable characteristics representative of a plurality of positions of the control rod within the at least one detection coil, and processing the identifiable characteristics to derive the positions of the control rod within the at least one detection coil. | 07-11-2013 |
20140156226 | Pitot Tube Diagnostic Systems and Methods - A pitot tube diagnostic system including a data acquisition unit to acquire an output signal of a pitot-static system, the output signal having a static component and a dynamic component, and a processing unit to monitor the dynamic component for one or more characteristics that deviate from one or more predetermined reference characteristics to indicate impairment of the pitot-static system. | 06-05-2014 |
20140321593 | HIGH RESOLUTION DIGITAL ROD POSITION INDICATION SYSTEM FOR NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS - A high resolution digital rod position indication (high resolution DRPI) system having improved resolution. The high resolution DRPI system monitors the rod control cluster and provides an indication of the rod position with precision to a single step. In addition, the high resolution DRPI system is capable of producing a rod position output compatible with existing rod control systems. The improved resolution of the high resolution DRPI system allows the actual position of the control rods to be continuously monitored and eliminates the need for or reduces the frequency of offline re-initialization of the step counters. | 10-30-2014 |
20140348208 | Systems and Methods of Measuring Temperature in Industrial Environments - A temperature detector and method of measuring temperature to obtain temperature readings in environments, such as fluids and gasses, by measuring electrical characteristics of the temperature detector that are influenced by the temperature. The temperature detector can be arranged such that a plurality of measurements can be obtained to provide sufficient diversity and redundancy of the measurements for enhanced diagnostics to be performed, such as optimization for fast dynamic response, calibration stability, in-situ response time testability, and in-situ calibration testability. | 11-27-2014 |
20140368219 | In-Situ Determination of Rod Control System Coil and Cable Impedances for Nuclear Power Plants - Systems and methods of monitoring a rod control system of a nuclear power plant, including calculating impedance of at least one coil of a rod movement mechanism non-intrusively while the system is operating, comparing a measured impedance to a reference impedance, and determining if the measured impedance deviates from the reference impedance value by a predetermined amount to indicate degradation of the rod control system. | 12-18-2014 |
20140369455 | Data Driven Step Counter for Rod Control Systems of Nuclear Power Plants - Systems and methods of monitoring step movements of control rods of a nuclear power plant, including measuring output signals of a plurality of rod movement coils during a step movement sequence of one or more control rods, analyzing the output signals to determine a direction of the step movement sequence, and comparing one or more output signals to reference output sequence to verify that a step of the control rod has occurred. | 12-18-2014 |
20140369456 | ROD MOVEMENT DIAGNOSTICS FOR NUCLEAR POWER PLANT USING ADVANCED DATA FITTING - Systems and methods of monitoring rod control systems of nuclear power plants, including: measuring a particular signal applied to at least one coil of a rod movement mechanism at one or more predetermined times relative to an initial energizing of a mechanism coil; comparing the measured signal to a reference signal parameter, and determining if the measured signal deviates from the reference signal parameter by a predetermined amount to indicate degradation of the rod control system. | 12-18-2014 |