Deep-Learning and Dynamic Time Warping-Based Approaches for the Diagnosis of Reactor Systems

The degradation of clamping force in the core support barrel, which forms the internal structure of a nuclear power plant, has the potential to significantly impact the plant's safety and reliability. Previous studies have concentrated on the detection of clamping force degradation but have been constrained in their ability to identify the precise size and position. This study proposes a novel methodology for diagnosing the size and position of clamping force degradation in core support barrels, combining deep-learning techniques and dynamic time warping (DTW) algorithms. DTW is applied to the magnitude data of the ex-core neutron noise signal obtained in the frequency domain, thereby enabling the effective learning of changes in sensor data values. Moreover, autoencoder-based (AE-based) representation learning is utilized to extract features of the data, preventing overfitting and thus enhancing the robustness of the model. The experiment results demonstrate that the size and position of clamping force degradation can be accurately predicted. It is expected that this research will contribute to enhancing the precision and efficiency of internal structure monitoring in nuclear power plants.