In-Situ Application Study on the Power Plant Valve Leak Diagnosis Using Acoustic Emission Technology

Valves in power plants are leaking internally by various damages including insertion of foreign objects on seat, seat crack, defects and fatigue crack of stem packing or welds etc. due to severe operating conditions such as high temperature and high pressure for extended period time. Acoustic emission(AE) technology should be applied in order to diagnose precisely and evaluate these valve internal leak. In this paper, results of studies which have accomplished in actual power plant are presented. We have analyzed background noise, AE signal level and frequency spectrum through laboratory tests on the basis of various actual conditions in power plant, and also have considered evaluation methods on the background noise, AE properties and the detectable minimum leak rate according to valve leak conditions through comparing with results of field tests in power plant. As a result of these studies, we conformed that evaluation of internal leak conditions including discrimination of leak or not, and the detectable minimum leak rate is possible, and also it is expected to contribute to safe operation and prevention of energy loss in power plants.