1) Background
One of the most important criteria of reliability and safety of rotating equipment is the level of vibration. Failures related to high vibration may lead to serious consequences such as failures of separate components of rotating equipment and in some cases to service accidents. Most of these failures can be anticipated and prevented by an adequate vibration monitoring system. The installation of such a system on large rotating equipment will increase the protection level of the individual equipment and consequently of the plant as indications, alarms and automatic actions if deemed necessary, are provided to prevent equipment failures. The recording of analyses of all data and information obtained from those automatic and permanent systems and also from portable instrumentation, will provide valuable data and information for predictive and corrective maintenance and for plant operation which contribute to plant safety.
For this project the OSA Utility (DTN, EdF and GKN) prepared the Technical Specification and Evaluation Criteria. The preparation of the documents started already in June 1997. The kick-off meeting for the implementation of this supply project was held in September 2001 with participation of the main supplier and contractor Bruel&Kjaer, the plant KhNPP, the local sub-contractors and the Tacis OSA Utility team.
A similar RCP pump vibration monitoring system was provided for the SUNPP under the Tacis OSA project U1.02/95B. The project contractor was the same Danish company as in this project and the project management quite similar.

2) Objectives
The overall objective of the VMS is to improve the reliability and the safety of operation of the plant by continuously assessing the condition of main rotating equipment.

The overall objectives of the VMS to be supplied are:
• monitor continuously the vibration characteristics of RCPs, the FWPs, and the TG in order to be able to identify quickly fast developing defects;
• provide warning and alarms in case of appearance of those defects;
• identify slow developing defects in the RCPs, the FWPs, and the TG by processing and analysing the data collected during the continuous monitoring of their vibration characteristics;
• identify slow developing defects on other rotating machinery by processing and analysing data, periodically collected by means of the portable vibration analysis equipment.
In order to be able to comply with the objectives of the project, the plant personnel, at different levels and functions, received an appropriate training.

The detailed objectives were as follows:
• assess the status of the existing vibration monitoring systems of the main rotating equipment at KhNPP Unit 1;
• to supply an on-line VMS for the RCPs as well as for the major plant rotating equipment as turbine, generator and feed water pumps (FWP);
• monitor vibration characteristics of the main equipment in order to quickly identify fast developing defects which is important to safety of equipment and staff;
• provide warning and alarms in case of detection of such defects;
• provide portable VM equipment a data acquisition system able to collect data from safety related equipment in above mentioned supply. It will identify slowly developing defects on auxiliary equipment by processing the periodical monitoring of their vibration characteristics;
• display store and process data in order to develop data analyses to identify tendencies and developing defects predicting possible malfunctions;
• provide the needed training for standard and predictive data processing methodologies and software

3) Project results–achievements (with reference to the TORs)
The following task activities were defined in the ToR:

• Task 1. action plan
• Task 2. endorsement of TS
• Task 3. bid evaluation
• Task 4. placing equipment orders
• Task 5. OSA engineering
• Task 6. OSA construction and erection
• Task 7. construction and erection supervision
• Task 8. equipment installation and supervision of equipment installation
• Task 9. end users personnel training
• Task 10. testing and commissioning
• Task 11. licensing activities
• Task 12. transfer to end user
• Task 13. final report

The scope of the supply of this project included the following services and equipment according to TS:

• Design, manufacturing, testing and delivery to the End User of all the equipment necessary for the continuous vibration monitoring and diagnosis of the RCPs, FWPs and TG of unit 1 of KhNPP. This VMS was to consist of:

• The sensors and related sensor components ( pre-amplifiers, demodulators, junction boxes etc. which will be installed close to the equipment to be measured);
• The electronic units for condition monitoring and for data acquisition of the signals (installed in the electronics rooms, which are respectively close to the containment and in the turbine hall);
• Cables and accessories for the transfer of the VMS signals from sensors to data acquisition and monitoring system and from there on to the different computers of the VMS;
• The main computer system (specialist computer) for the vibration specialist. This computer shall have a dual function viz. for configuration, monitoring and diagnostic purpose and it should also function as a server. This computer system will be linked to the data acquisition equipment and will be installed in the Vibration Laboratory. Linked to this computer system will be two computers which provide two working places in the Vibration Laboratory for vibration analysts;
• The computer system for the operator. This computer will be used mainly for presenting the results of the monitoring process. The computer will be linked to the specialist computer system and or to the data acquisition equipment;
• A computer system for the Laboratory of Special Measurements of the I&C Department. This computer will be used for presenting the results of the monitoring process. The computer will be linked to the main computer system in the Vibration Laboratory;
• One colour printer and three black/white laser printers. The colour printer and one laser printer will be located in the Vibration Laboratory, the other two laser printers will be located in the I&C Laboratory and the Control Room respectively;
• The software required to fulfil the requirements is described in section 3.4.

• Delivery of portable equipment for the periodical analysis of the vibration characteristics of other (rotating) machinery. This equipment shall provide a serial link communication with the specialist computer, allowing the collected data to be processed by the system in the same way as the other data;
• Documentation, as required in TS;
• Assistance in delivery and checking of all goods;
• Personnel training as defined in TS;
• Installation supervision and commissioning/acceptance testing, as required in TS;
• Some laboratory equipment and auxiliary tools as defined in the TS.
The final list of equipment, with an indication of the components to be replaced and the reason for replacement was reviewed by Procurement Agent and approved by Task Manager November 20, 2000. January 11, 2001 Bruel & Kjaer provided Tacis Team with the Quality Assurance Manual for the project.
In February 2002, the Factory Acceptance Test was satisfactorily performed and the results of the tests were received from Bruel & Kjaer March 14, 2001. Tacis Team provided Bruel & Kjaer with the necessary information regarding the shipment of the equipment to Ukraine and the Ukrainian custom procedures. End of May 2001, the equipment was approved and placed in KhNPP storage. Due to some problems regarding custom clearance procedures, part of the equipment (proximity transducers) arrived on-site late.
The erection, inspection and testing of the VMS equipment took place during the shutdown for annual outage between May 19, 2001 and August 2, 2001. Mid of July 2001, the End User KhNPP reviewed and accepted the erection, inspection and testing activities performed by the local subcontractors. The project status was reviewed in an on-site project meeting end of July 2001. Because of changes in the KhNPP Maintenance Planning for the refuelling outage, it was not possible to install the displacement transducers on the turbo-generators and two of the main coolant pumps as previously planned. After consultation with the EC, it was agreed to install the remaining transducers during the annual outage of 2002. In the third week of October 2001, the commissioning of the installed equipment was successfully completed and in addition, the provisional Acceptance Test was performed.
During the second week of August 2001 two courses were offered on-site for respectively diagnostic staff and System and Maintenance personnel. September 17-21, 2001 the last and final training, containing a System Administration and Maintenance course, a System Management course and an introduction course for the software Advisor, were supplied at Supplier’s offices. Course handouts and manuals were provided to KhNPP. During the annual outage of 2002, the remaining transducers were installed. In November 5, 2002 a final project meeting was organised. During the meeting all the outstanding issues were solved and closed.

4) Comments
End User’s management and experts gained a lot of expertise in the implementation of a VMS system for rotating equipment in a NPP. This expertise is related to technical implementation as well as the organisation of the project. It was recommended to make this expertise available and accessible for other Eastern European NPPs. Some administrative complications related to custom clearance caused some delay in goods delivery process. To avoid it, mainly for projects with a planning strict fixed to the outage maintenance activities in a NPP, it is recommended to arrange the custom clearance activities timely, in close co-operation with the End User.
Further Information
Further information on the project results could be sought from the beneficiary organizations.
The Project Final report is available at the JRC-IE archive.