Development of a heat exchanger root-cause analysis methodology

Conference · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1989 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Supplement; (USA)

OSTI ID:5323062

Jarrell, D B; Stratton, R C

The objective of this work is to determine a generic methodology for approaching the accurate identification of the root cause of component failure. Root-cause determinations are an everyday challenge to plant personnel, but they are handled with widely differing degrees of success due to the approaches, levels of diagnostic expertise, and documentation. The criterion for success is simple: If the root cause of the failure has truly been determined and corrected, the same causal failure relationship will not be demonstrated again in the future. The approach to root-cause analysis (RCA) element definition was to first selectively choose and constrain a functionally significant component (in this case a component cooling water to service water heat exchanger) that has demonstrated prevalent failures. Then a root cause of failure analysis was performed by a systems engineer on a large number of actual failure scenarios. The analytical process used by the engineer was documented and evaluated to abstract the logic model used to arrive at the root cause. For the case of the heat exchanger, the actual root-cause diagnostic approach is described. A generic methodology for the solution of the root cause of component failure is demonstrable for this general heat exchanger sample.

• OSTI ID: 5323062
• Report Number(s): CONF-890833-; TRN: 90-002767
• Journal Information: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Supplement; (USA), Vol. 59; Conference: 14. biennial conference on reactor operating experience: plant operations - the human element, Charlotte, NC (USA), 6-9 Aug 1989
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
HEAT EXCHANGERS
SYSTEM FAILURE ANALYSIS
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
AGING
ENGINEERED SAFETY SYSTEMS
HEAT TRANSFER
HYDRAULICS
IMPLEMENTATION
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
TESTING
US NRC
VALIDATION
ENERGY TRANSFER
FLUID MECHANICS
MECHANICS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
POWER PLANTS
SYSTEMS ANALYSIS
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
US ORGANIZATIONS
220200* - Nuclear Reactor Technology- Components & Accessories