Improving the reliability of decisions taken in the organization of maintenance and repair of electric power systems is one of the most important and difficult problems. It is important because erroneous solutions lead, first of all, to an increase in operating costs. The difficulty in solving this problem is associated with the lack of appropriate methods to reduce the risk of erroneous decisions. The article presents one of the aspects of this problem, i.e. improving the reliability of the decision on the nature of the relationship of technical and economic indicators of electric power systems. Traditionally, increase of reliability of the decision is reached by reduction of a Type I error. Usually it is accepted to be equal to 5%, occasionally – to 1%, and at researches – even to 0.5 %. The corresponding critical values of correlation coefficients are given in mathematics reference books. This method implicitly assumes that the consequences of a Type I error significantly exceed the consequences of Type II errors, and the distribution of correlation coefficients corresponds to the normal law. Therefore, the risk of an erroneous decision concerning the absence of a significant statistical relation is not controlled. But even if there is a wish to estimate the Type II error, it is almost impossible to fulfill it, because there are no critical values for correlation coefficients of dependent samples. No less relevant is the problem of deciding on the statistical relationship between technical and economic indicators in conditions of equality of consequences of erroneous decisions, i.e. it is necessary to take into account both a Type I error and a Type II error. To overcome the mentioned difficulties a new method for estimating the critical values of correlation coefficients has been developed. The novelty consists in the application of fiducial approach; the calculation of critical values are fulfilled with the aid of computer technologies of simulation of possible realizations of the correlation coefficients for the two assumptions, viz. technical and economic indicators of the independent and dependent; simulation is fulfilled with the method of solving the “inverse problem”, which enables the possible implementation of the correlation coefficients for the really dependent and independent samples of random variables at a given sample size; the developed algorithms and programs for calculation made it possible to obtain the critical values of correlation coefficients for independent and dependent samples; in conditions of the sameness of the consequences of erroneous decisions it is proposed to make a decision not based on critical value but based on the boundary values of the correlation coefficients that correspond to the minimum total risk of erroneous decisions; the exemplification of the recommendations application was made on example of technical and economic parameters of boilers of power units of 300 MWt. The significant impact of the availability of interrelated technical and economic indicators on the result of the ranking of boiler plants by the reliability and efficiency of their work is demonstrated.

One of the main tasks being solved for all electric networks with open topology, including city electric networks, viz. a task of the choice of optimum points of disconnection, has been improved. It is shown that saturation of urban networks with distributed sources of small-scale generation causes the fact that mode parameters being determined in the urban SMART GRID conditions become observable. Therefore, the majority of problems of mode control, typical for urban distribution electric networks of a traditional design, lose their relevance under the SMART GRID conditions. The main technological task is to improve the selection of optimal points of disconnection of networks. Urban electric networks of the Belarusian United Energy System are actively saturated with distributed sources of small-scale generation, which can be connected to high-voltage buses of consumer transformer substations, including the ones on the load side; and they are equipped with automation to ensure synchronous operation with the power system and maintain autonomous operation. Therefore, the accounting of such generating sources becomes necessary as one of the objectives of managing the modes of urban electric networks (both traditional ones and the ones in the SMART GRID conditions). In the article the technique and algorithm of choice of optimal points of disconnection of city electric networks are proposed taking into account various conditions of application of sources of small generation: when the source operates in parallel with an electric network and has constant active and reactive generation or energizes the load isolated from a network taking into account restrictions of the power generated by a source. The solution of this task makes it possible to reduce losses of power and the electricity in a network much more than because of implementation of any other operational action. The developed algorithm was tested through the example of optimization of the points of disconnection of the fragment of the urban distribution network of 10 kV. An effective solution to the problem of choosing the initial positions of the points of disconnection of urban networks based on the Dijkstra algorithm is also proposed, which significantly reduces the time of their optimization.

In the mechanical calculation of the flexible wires of substations and overhead lines, sags and tension are determined in various climatic conditions. Concentrated loads from spacers, barrier balls, stubs, taps to electrical apparatus and other elements are replaced with a load distributed over the span. On the example of a span with tension insulator springs, the action of concentrated loads on the wire is considered, the error is determined when the concentrated forces are replaced with a load one that is uniformly distributed along the span. It is shown that concentrated loads cannot be replaced with distributed ones by simple division of total loads by the span length, since this might result in completely incorrect findings. A relationship is established between the coefficient of the increase of the sag, the coefficient of concentrated forces, the coefficient that takes into account the presence of tension insulator springs, and the angle of inclination of the span. With wind load and the presence of taps to electrical apparatus, the deviations of the wire in two planes may be calculated independently of each other if the forces concentrated in these planes are known. A decrease in the error is shown with an increase in the number of small concentrated forces. The influence of the angle of inclination of the span and the presence of tension insulator springs on calculating the deviations of the wires of substations and overhead lines is assessed. A more accurate calculation of mechanical tensions and sags is possible with the use of a vector-parametric method for calculating the flexible bus of switchgears and wires of overhead lines, where the design model of wires in the form of a flexible elastic thread is used, taking into account the spatial disposition of all structural elements.

The solution of problems of diagnostics of windings of electric machines is associated with the necessity of selection of quasi-periodic test signals against the background noise. In order to highlight useful signals, as a rule, the differences in spectral compositions of signals and noises are used. Ideally, the shape of the optimal filter frequency response should coincide with the shape of the spectrum of the useful signal, which determines the complexity of such a filter. The aim of the research is to increase the accuracy of measurements and simplify the algorithmic support of measuring systems by developing a mathematical tool that makes it possible to uniquely identify and take into account errors caused by the finiteness of the measurement intervals in the processing. Determining a one-to-one relationship between local variations of signal time parameters and alterations in its spectrum parameters is believed to be the reserve of increase of sensitivity of methods of processing of quasi-periodic signals in the conditions of constant growth of computing capabilities of measuring instruments. Variations in the values of the parameters of the signals lead to a violation of the original distribution of the harmonic components, some of the latter being subjected to the greatest alterations changes, and the some other – to the smallest ones. It is proposed to increase the accuracy of measurements due to the replacement the low-sensitivity registration of alterations in the time parameters of signals with the registration of alterations in the parameters of the characteristic harmonic components of the spectrum, which have a maximum sensitivity to deviations of the controlled parameter and a minimum sensitivity to deviations caused by the instability of the measuring equipment. The mathematical tool corresponding to the practice has been developed, that makes it possible to determine unambiguously the errors caused by finiteness of measurement intervals of quasi-periodic signals. Automatic accounting of these errors makes it possible to do without complex correlation processing of quasi-periodic signals that require large computing resources (time and speed of data processing, the amount of RAM) and to ensure the accuracy of measurements.

Recently, there has been a tendency in the industry to use electrochemical processing methods based on the use of milli- and microsecond pulses of different polarity and amplitude instead of a direct current. The use of a pulsed current in many cases makes it possible to obtain the desired effect by cheaper means and to provide additional controllability of the electrochemical process by adjusting the time parameters of the current pulses. This also ensures reduction of the energy costs of the polishing and cleaning process of surfaces as compared to direct current processing and increasing the efficiency of processing when the rate of smoothing the surface microroughness referred to the total removal of the metal rises significantly. For example, the application of bipolar pulses in polishing of many metallic materials eliminates the use of expensive and hazardous chromium electrolytes. The use of pulse mode during electrolyte-plasma polishing makes it possible to achieve the reduction of energy consumption and to increase of process efficiency while maintaining high intensity, processing quality and environmental safety. In order to study the effect of pulses parameters and the duration of a pause between them on the characteristics of the surface of parts made of various metallic materials in electrochemical and electrolyte-plasma processing modes the special power supply was modeled, designed and manufactured. The power supply provides the possibility of regulation frequency, the duration of the positive and negative pulses and the duration of the pauses between them a wide range. It makes it possible to generate current pulses up to 50 A at a voltage of 0 to 400 V of positive and negative polarities and is able to regulate their duration in the range from 10.0 μs to 8.1 s with the possibility of changing the ratio of the pulse duration and pauses from 1:1 to 1:9.

Tgratinghis paper presents the results of experimental investigations of the influence of mixing spacer gratings with different types of deflectors on the coolant flow in the TVSKvadrat fuel assembly of the PWR-type reactor. Experimental model of the TVS-Kvadrat of the PWR reactor was made in complete geometric similarity with the full-scale cassettes. Studies were carried out by modeling the flow of coolant in the core with the use of an experimental stand; the latter was an aerodynamic open loop through which air is pumped. To measure the local hydrodynamic characteristics of the coolant flow, special pneumatic sensors were used that were able to measure the full velocity vector at the point by its three components. During the studies of the local fluid dynamics of the coolant, the transverse flow rates were measured; also, the coolant flow rates were measured by cells of the TVS-Kvadrat experimental model. The analysis of the spatial distribution of the projections of the absolute flow velocity made it possible to detail the pattern of the coolant flow behind the mixing spacing gratings with different variants of the deflector design, as well as to choose the deflector of the optimal design. Accumulated data base on the flow of the coolant in the TVS-Kvadrat fuel assembly formed the basis of the engineering justification of the structures of the active zones of PWR reactors. Guidelines for choosing optimal designs mixing spacing grids have been considered by designers of the “Afrikantov OKBM” JSC when they created implementations of the latest TVS-Kvadrat assemblies. The results of experimental studies are used to verify CFD-codes of both foreign and domestic origin, as well as the programs for detailed cell-by-cell calculation of active zones in order to reduce conservatism in the justification of thermal reliability.

The improvement of natural gas use technologies in water-heating boilers is considered. The concept of a new watertube smoke tube boiler, created on the basis of the screen radial tube bundle placement in the space of a cylindrical heat pipe-furnace. The results of numerical computer simulation of the furnace process in the 630 kW watertube smoke tube boiler are compared with the corresponding data obtained during the experiment. The analysis of the results of numerical computer simulation reveals the efficiency of the installed tube radial bundle: the total heat perception in the furnace increased by 56 %, while the growth of the part of the heat transferred by convective heat exchange occurred by 22 %; the temperature level in the furnace volume has decreased, while the concentration of nitrogen oxides has decreased by 45–51 %. It is experimentally established that the presence of the cooled screen tube radial bundle in the furnace of the watertube smoke tube boiler makes it possible: to increase heat release rate in the furnace volume by 10 %; to reduce the concentration of nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide in flue gases by 24–40 % and 25–67 % respectively (resulting in a compliance of the level of pollutant emission to the requirements of the Ukrainian national regulations, viz. GOST 30735–2001); reduce the excess air in the furnace by 3 % and increase the efficiency of the boiler by 0.5 %. The pre-production prototype of the water-heating smoke tube boiler (KVVD-0.63 Gn) has passed the certification tests, state registration; the boiler has been adopted in permanent operation. The boiler is not complicated in manufacturing, and producible in the conditions of municipal heating network companies. The reliability of the boiler's design has been confirmed by the experience of many years of functioning.