Vibration Monitoring of Kraftwerk Union Pressurized Water Reactors—Review, Present Status, and Further Development

Incipient damage to mechanical structures may be detected early in time by deviations from normal dynamic behavior. For vibration monitoring of coupled systems, only a small number of transducers are necessary, in general. On this basis, Kraftwerk Union has been involved in the development and construction of vibration monitoring systems for pressurized water reactors over the last 20 yr. The current state of the art permits vibration monitoring during normal operation by reactor personnel without expert assistance. The new SÜS-86 microprocessor-based system allows further expansion toward an expert system.