July 2022

Shri Vidhatri M M, UG4, CND received the best paper award in the Sensors and Measurements section for her work on Development of sensor for monitoring the integrity of lubrication system of heavy duty pumps in nuclear reactors at the 2nd IEEE International Conference on Emerging Frontiers in Electrical and Electronic Technologies (ICEFEET 2022) in NIT Patna from 24 – 25 June. 

The paper was part of a project she did in collaboration with Indra Gandhi Center for Atomic Energy (IGCAR) under the supervision of Shri Sivaramakrishna, Head of Innovative sensors section, IGCAR and S Chitrakkumar, IGCAR. Currently she is working under the supervision of Dr. Tapan Kumar Sau at IIITH.

Research work as explained by the authors Shri Vidhatri, UG4-CND; Vivek Mathur, UG3-CND; Shri Sivaramakrishna, Head of Innovative Sensors Section, IGCAR and S Chitrakkumar, IGCAR:

In Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR), heavy secondary sodium rotary pumps are provided with oil pots to collect the lubricating oil of the cooling system in case of minute leaks. These leaks need to be detected as early as possible. The Innovative sensor section (ISS) has developed a sensor with the electronics to detect the oil when it reaches a threshold level (5mm). The sensor can work accurately even above 100 deg C temperature. The added features of this sensor are its robust nature and fail-safe model with very few random errors. The sensor has no moving or heating parts and a fast response time.