Integrity Evaluation of Thinned Elbow Based on TES Plastic Load

TES 소성하중 기준의 감육엘보 기기건전성 평가

Wall thinning defect due to flow accelerated corrosion is one of major aging phenomena in most power plant industries, and it results in reducing load carrying capacity of the piping systems. A failure testing system was set up for real scale elbows containing various simulated wall thinning defects, and monotonic in-plane bending tests were performed under internal pressure to find out the failure behavior of thinned elbows. Various finite element models were generated and analysed to figure out and simulate the behavior for other thinning shapes and loading conditions. This paper presents the decreasing trends of load carrying capacity according to the thinning dimensions which were revealed from the investigation of finite element analysis results. A mechanical integrity evaluation model for thinned elbows was proposed, also. This model can be used to calculate the TES plastic load of thinned elbows for general internal pressure, thinning location, and in-plane bending direction.