Evaluation of an acoustic leak analyser for use on PWR valves in sub-cooled water

This Report describes the work carried out to evaluate the performance of a commercial acoustic leak analyser for use on valves isolating pipework sections containing sub-cooled water. The investigation was carried out in 3 parts: (1) linking the analyser to a micro-computer to facilitate data storage, high resolution plotting and mathematical manipulation. (2) production of calibration curves of leakage noise versus known leak rate in cold water for different valve designs. (3) a review of the fundamental mechanisms causing noise in fluids and a comparison with the experimental data. (author)