• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.74-78
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• 2010

In this paper, a non-contact method of evaluating the thickness reduction in an aluminum sheet caused by corrosion and friction using SH-EMAT (shear horizontal, electromagnetic acoustic transducer) is described. Since this method is based on the measurement of the time-of-flight and amplitude change of guided waves caused from the thickness reduction, it provides information on the thinning defects. Information was obtained on the changes of the various wave features, such as their time-of-flight and amplitude, and their correlations with the thickness reduction were investigated. The interesting features in the dispersive behavior of selected guided modes were used for the detection of thinning defects. The measurements of these features using SH waves were performed on aluminum specimens with regions thinned by 7.2% to 29.5% of the total thickness. It is shown that the time-of-flight measurement provides an estimation of the thickness reduction and length of the thinning defects.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.22 no.10 s.175
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• pp.158-166
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• 2005

Pressurized gas pipeline is subject to harmful effects both of the surrounding environment and of the materials transmitted in them. In order to maintain the integrity, reliable assessment procedures including tincture mechanics analysis etc are required. Up to now, the integrity assessment has been performed using conventional deterministic approaches even though there are many uncertainties to hinder a rational evaluation. In this respect, probabilistic approach is considered as an appropriate method for gas pipeline evaluation. The objectives of this paper are to estimate the failure probability of corroded pipeline in gas and oil plants and to propose limited operating conditions under different types of leadings. To do this, a probabilistic assessment program using reliability index and simulation techniques was developed and applied to evaluate failure probabilities of corroded API-5L-X52/X60 gas pipelines subjected to internal pressure, bending moment and combined loading. The evaluation results showed a promising applicability of the probabilistic integrity assessment program.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.36-40
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• 2010

The ultrasonic guided wave propagates along with the given structure's wall direction. Because of this specific character, the ultrasonic guided waves arc used in many other fields. Especially, it can be readily utilized for nondestructive inspection of various structures that are made up of gas pipes, heat exchanger tubes, and thin plates. Further, the guided wave technology can be readily utilized when inspecting pipes or thin plates which pose high risk of the accident but for which the nondestructive inspection itself is impossible because it is difficult to get to them since they are coated or buried underground. In the other hand, conventional ultrasonic testing such as thickness gauging uses bulk waves and only tests the region of structure immediately below the transducer. As a result of the application about inlet and outlet cooling water line using guided wave test, we conformed that the overall corrosions were in the lower side of the 304.8 mm inlet valve and these corrosions were engaged in not locally but through the lower side of the valve line. In the near future, we can expect that the detectable defect size is smaller than before along with the development of the sensing technology.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.1-13
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• 2018

The proportion of natural gas-fueled power generation is expanding due to the change of domestic energy policy pursuing reduction of dust and increasing clean energy consumption. Natural gas fuels used for the combined-cycle power plants and the district-heating power plants are operated at high temperature and high pressure in the fuel supply system. Accidents due to leakage of the gas such as fire and explosion should be prevented by applying risk management techniques. In this study, risk assessment was performed on the natural gas fuel supply system of a combined power plant based on the API RP 581 RBI code. For the application of the API RBI code, lines and segments of the evaluation target system were identified. Operational data and input information were analyzed for the calculations of probability of failure and consequence of failure. The results of the risk assessment were analyzed over time from the initial installation time. In the code-based evaluation, the gas fuel supply system was mainly affected by thinning, external damage, and mechanical fatigue damage mechanisms. As the operating time passes, the risk is expected to increase due to the external damage caused by the CUI(Corrosion Under Insulation).

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.22 no.3_1spc
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• pp.518-524
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• 2013

Recently, probabilistic assessments of nuclear power plant components have generated interest in the nuclear industries, either for the efficient inspection and maintenance of older nuclear plants or for improving the safety and cost-effective design of newly constructed nuclear plants. In the present paper, the partial safety factor (PSF) of wall-thinned nuclear piping is evaluated based on a reliability index method, from which the effect of each statistical variable (assessment parameter) on a certain target probability is evaluated. In order to calculate the PSF of a wall-thinned pipe, a limit state function based on the load and resistance factor design (LRFD) concept is first constructed. As for the reliability assessment method, both the advanced first-order second moment (AFOSM) method and second-order reliability method (SORM) are employed to determine the PSF of each probabilistic variable. The present results can be used for developing maintenance strategies considering the priorities of input variables for structural integrity assessments of wall-thinned piping, and this PSF concept can also be applied to the optimal design of the components of newly constructed plants considering the target reliability levels.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.295-301
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• 2010

Flow accelerated corrosion(FAC) of carbon steel pipes in nuclear power plants has been known as one of the major degradation mechanisms. It could have bad influence on the plant reliability and safety. Also detection of FAC is a significant cost to the nuclear power plant because of the need to remove and replace insulation. Recently, the interest of the guided wave testing(GWT) has grown because it allows long range inspection without removing insulation of the pipe except at the probe position. If GWT can be applied to detection of FAC damages, it will can significantly reduce the cost for the inspection of the pipes. The objective of this study was to determine the capability of GWT to identify location of FAC damages. In this paper, three kinds of techniques were used to measure the amplitude ratio between the first and the second welds at the elbow area of mock-ups that contain real FAC damages. As a result, optimal inspection technique and minimum detectability to detect FAC damages drew a conclusion.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.46-52
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• 2019

This work proposes a noncontact ultrasonic transducer for detecting wall-thinning of containment liner plates of nuclear power plants by measuring their thickness without physical contact. Because the containment liner plate is designed to prevent atmospheric leakage of radioactive substances under severe nuclear accident, its wall-thinning inspection is important for safety of nuclear power plants. Wall-thinning investigation of containment liner plates have been carried out by measuring their thickness with contact-type ultrasonic thickness gauge by inspectors and needs a lot of time and cost. As an alternative, an electromagnetic acoustic transducer measuring precisely thickness of containment liner plates without any physical contact or couplant was suggested in this research. A transducer generating and measuring shear ultrasonic waves in thickness direction was designed and wave field produced by the transducer was analyzed to verify the design. The working performance of the suggested transducer was tested with carbon steel plate specimens with various thicknesses. The test result shows that the proposed transducer can measure thickness of the specimens precisely without any couplant and implies that swift scanning of wall-thinning of containment liner plates will be possible with the proposed transducer.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.349-355
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• 2014

Wall thinning defects can occur in the pressure vessels used in a variety of industries. Such defects are related to the flow velocity. Considering the fact that such vessels constitute up to 70 or 80% of the plant structures in a power plant, it is important to measure internal defects as part of a safety evaluation. In this study, optical measurement were applied in a non-destructive evaluation using shearography to ensure the safety and improve the reliability of a power plant through the non-contact, non-destructive evaluation of pressure vessels. In order to verify whether the pressure vessels contained faults, experimental and analytical investigation were conducted to measure any internal defects and out-of-plane deformation from inner temperature changes and pressure changes in the piping of the circulation system. The most important factors in this research were the thickness, width, and length of a defect. An increase in these could confirm an increase in the deformation. Thus, internal defects in a pressure vessel were measured using shearography, which made it possible to ensure the reliability and integrity of the pipe.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.419-425
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• 2023

This paper presents the research results of analyzing the high-temperature corrosion characteristics of three currently commercialized heat exchanger tube materials under actual operating conditions of a biomass power plant. In order to precisely analyze the high-temperature corrosion characteristics of these materials, a high-temperature corrosion evaluation device was installed in the power plant equipment, which allows for adjusting the surface temperature of the heat exchanger tubes. Experiments were conducted for approximately 300 hours under various temperature and operating conditions. In this study, the commercialized heat exchanger tube materials used were SA213T12, SA213T22, and SA213T91 alloys. In order to objectively analyze the high-temperature corrosion characteristics of each material, an international standard-based process to remove corrosion products was applied to obtain the weight change of the specimens, and the average thickness loss and corrosion rate were derived. Thus, the high-temperature corrosion results for each condition were quantitatively compared and analyzed. In addition, in order to increase the reliability of the high-temperature corrosion evaluation method introduced in this study, the surface and cross-sectional corrosion of the specimens were confirmed by using scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis. Based on these analysis results, it was found that the corrosion resistance of the commercial heat exchanger materials increases as the content of chrome and nickel in the composition increases. Additionally, it was found that the corrosion phenomenon is rapidly accelerated as the surface temperature increases. Finally, the replacement period (lifetime) of the heat exchanger tubes under each condition could be inferred through this study.