Analysis of acoustic data from UK sodium/water reaction test facilities

This paper describes acoustic measurements made during a number of sodium/water reaction experiments in the UK. The tests have included water and steam injections through both realistic (fatigue crack) defects and machined orifices and have covered a range of experimental conditions including those appropriate to the inlet and outlet regions of the EFR steam generators. Injection rates were typically in the range 0.1 to 30 g/s. Where possible, gas injections were also included in the test programme for comparison, since it is anticipated that a practical SGU acoustic leak detection system would include a facility for gas injections to allow system calibration, and to confirm transmission properties within the SGU. The test sections were instrumented with accelerometers on waveguides and in some cases included an under-sodium microphone situated about 300mm above the reaction zone. Tape recordings were made during the tests and used for detailed analysis off-line, although an audible output from one of the acoustic channels was used to monitor the progress of the injections and provide information for the rig operators. A comparison of the signal amplitudes measured during the experiments with typical reactor background noise was made and an estimate of the detection sensitivity of an acoustic monitoring system was deduced. 3 refs, 5 figs, 1 tab