Thorium—Energy for the Future pp 537-546 | Cite as
Design and Development of Process-Powered Sensors on Wireless Sensor Network for Stand-alone Plant Critical Data Management During SBO and Beyond Design Basis Events
Abstract
Considering the need to access crucial parameters in a nuclear reactor during station blackout condition (SBO), we have proposed self-powered or process-powered sensors with wireless data transmission. Low-power electronics comprising a piezoresistive pressure sensor, amplifier, and wireless transmitter was developed for demonstration of process-powered sensor operation. The required electrical power was derived using a thermoelectric generator as an energy harvester which converts heat energy from the process to electrical energy and drives the complete electronics along with the wireless transmitter. A power management circuitry has been used for management of power fed to the electronics. The complete instrumentation has been tested in the laboratory to demonstrate the operation of process-powered sensor and wireless instrumentation. Such approach would be suitable for wireless network of self-powered/process-powered sensors and also for wearable devices by operators. An overview of this development is presented in this paper.
Keywords
Microelectromechanical system sensors MEMS SBO BDBE Self-powered sensors Wireless networks Process powered/self powered Wearable devicesReferences
- 1.Severe accident management guidance technical basis report, vol. 2. (EPRI, 2012)Google Scholar
- 2.J.L. Rempe, D.L. Knudson, TMI-2—a case study for PWR instrumentation performance during a severe accident (2013)Google Scholar
- 3.D. Clayton, R. Williams, Communication requirements and concept of operation for sensors network. ORNL/TM-2013/180 (2013)Google Scholar
- 4.A. Bari, J. Jiang, Deployment strategies for wireless sensor networks in nuclear power plants. Nucl. Technol. 187 (2014)Google Scholar