Effect of thermocouple time constant on sensing of temperature fluctuations in a fast reactor subassembly
Knowledge of temperature fluctuations in fast reactor subassembly is very important from a safety point of view. The time constant of thermocouples which are used for measuring coolant temperature in a fast reactor varies owing to various factors. Hence, it becomes necessary to investigate the effec...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2014-02-01
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| Series: | Journal of Sensors and Sensor Systems |
| Online Access: | http://www.j-sens-sens-syst.net/3/55/2014/jsss-3-55-2014.pdf |
| Summary: | Knowledge of temperature fluctuations in fast reactor subassembly is very
important from a safety point of view. The time constant of thermocouples which are
used for measuring coolant temperature in a fast reactor varies owing to
various factors. Hence, it becomes necessary to investigate the effect of
change in the time constant on sensed fluctuations. This paper investigates the
dependence of temperature fluctuations on thermocouple time constants. A
Scilab model consisting of source temperature profile, second-order
thermocouple and histogram calculation is designed. Simulation is performed
for various levels of fluctuations, fixed and variable thermocouple
time constants. Kurtosis for each condition is calculated with the help of a
histogram. It is found that the effect of true source fluctuations on sensor
output is very large compared to that of a similar percentage of time-constant
variations. Hence in systems like fast reactors, where the degree of source
fluctuations (fluid enthalpy) is large in comparison to that of time-constant
variations, the overall effect can be considered with great confidence to be
the outcome of coolant temperature rather than thermocouple time-constant
variations. |
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| ISSN: | 2194-8771 2194-878X |