• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Marine Engineers Conference
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• 2012.06a
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• pp.152-153
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• 2012

While engine room arranging pipe which is used from the vessel, It measured the internal flow of 90 degree elbow which is used from the main condenser. Fluid flow in elbow of 90 degree is measured by PIV and Dewetron system. The Reynolds number adopts 50000 and experimental study of flow field in the elbow.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.129-134
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• 2012

UT(Ultrasonic Test), one of the non-destructive tests, is the most common thickness measurement method for evaluating the wear rate in NPPs(Nuclear Power Plants). UT is used widely because it is easy and safe for use. However some amount of error inevitably occurs in attempting to measure the thickness. The error, that could make the thickness data thicker or thinner, may affect estimation of wear rate in pipes. NPPs are composed of a lot of pipes and components. Some of them are tested to check the current status during RFO(Re-Fueling Outage). Reliability analysis of UT is essential for evaluating pipe wear rate and establishing the long-term management plan in NPPs. This paper reviewed the cause of error occurrence and presented the UT data reliability analysis method. Also, this paper shows the application result of reliability analysis to the UT data acquired in NPPs.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.320-325
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• 2016

To perform ultrasonic testing (UT) thickness measurement of the secondary side piping installed in nuclear power plants, the insulation for preventing heat loss should be removed. The type of insulation can be divided into fixed and removable insulation. Fixed and removable insulation have their own strengths and weaknesses. Removable insulation has been installed in the components susceptible to wall thinning caused by FAC and erosion from Shin-Kori unit 1, which commenced its commercial operation in 2011. In this paper, the number of repeated inspections of components and the number of replacements of fixed insulation were estimated and a more economical way was identified based on the manufacturing and installation costs for fixed and removable insulation.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.90-95
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• 2014

Local wall thinning is a point of concern in almost all steel structures such as pipe lines covered with a thermal insulator made up of materials with low thermal conductivity(fiberglass or mineral wool); hence, Non Destructive Technique(NDT) methods that are capable of detecting the wall thinning and defects without removing the insulation are necessary. In this study we developed a Pulsed Eddy Current(PEC) system to detect the wall thinning of Ferro magnetic steel pipes covered with fiber glass thermal insulator and shielded with Aluminum plate. The developed system is capable of detecting the wall thickness change through an insulation of thickness 10cm and 0.4mm aluminum shielding. In order to confirm the thickness change due to wall thinning, two different sensors, a hall sensor and coil sensor were used as a detecting element. In both cases, the results show a very good change corresponding to the thickness change of the test specimen. During these experiments a carbon steel tube of diameter 210mm and a length of 620mm, which is covered with insulator of 95mm thickness was used. To simulate the wall thinning, the thickness of the tube is changed for a specified length such as 2.5mm, 5mm and 8 mm from the inner surface of the tube. A 0.4mm thick Aluminum plate was covered on the Test specimen to simulate the shielding of the insulated pipelines. For both hall sensor and coil detection methods Fast Fourier transform(FFT) was calculated using window approach and the results for the test specimen without Aluminum shielding were summarized which shows a clear identification of thickness change in the test specimen by comparing the magnitude spectra. The PEC system can detect the wall thinning under the 95 mm thickness insulation and 0.4 mm Al shielding, and the output signal showed linear relation with tube wall thickness.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.47-52
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• 2011

An electromagnetic acoustic transducer(EMAT) is a non-contact transducer which can transmit the ultrasonic guided waves into specimens without couplant. And it can easily generate specific guided waves such as SH(shear horizontal) or Lamb waves by altering the design of coil and magnet. In this study, the SH wave, which is generated by EMAT, has been applied to estimate the thickness-reduction in a steel plate. Especially, the interesting feature of the dispersive behavior in selected wave modes is used to detect the thickness-reduction. Experimental results show that the reduction-level can be quantified by the measurement of the group velocity of the wave which passes though the thinning area.

• 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.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.291-298
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• 2015

An array type probe for monitoring metal tubes is proposed in this paper which utilizes peak value and peak time of a pulsed eddy current(PEC) signal. The probe consists of an array of encircling coils along a tube and the outside of coils is shielded by ferrite to prevent source magnetic fields from directly affecting sensor signals since it is the magnetic fields produced by eddy currents that reflect the condition of metal tubes. The positions of both exciter and sensor coils are consecutively moved automatically so that manual scanning is not necessary. At one position of send-receive coils, peak value and peak time are extracted from a sensor PEC signal and these data are accumulated for all positions to form an array type peak value signal and an array type peak time signal. Numerical simulation was performed using the backward difference method in time and the finite element method for spatial analysis. Simulation results showed that peak value increases and the peak appears earlier as the defect depth or length increases. The proposed array signals are shown to be excellent in reflecting the defect location as well as variations of defect depth and length within the array probe.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.62-69
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• 2014

A huge number of carbon steel piping components installed in the secondary system of nuclear power plants are exposed to aging mechanisms such as FAC (Flow-Accelerated Corrosion), Cavitation, Flashing, and LDIE (Liquid Droplet Impingement Erosion). Those aging mechanisms can lead to thinning of the piping components. To manage the wall thinning degradation, most of utilities in the world predict the wall thinning rate based on the computational program such as CHECWORKS, COMSY, and BRT-CICERO, evaluate the UT (Ultrasonic Test) data, and determine next inspection timing, repair or replacement, if needed. There are several evaluation methods, such as band, blanket, and strip methods, commonly used for determining the wear of piping components from single UT inspection data. It has been identified that those single UT evaluation methods not only do not consider the manufacturing features of pipes, but also may exclude the data of the most thinned point when determining the representative wear rate of piping components. This paper describes a newly developed single UT evaluation method, E-Cross method, for solving above problems and introduces application examples for several pipes and elbows. It was identified that the E-Cross method using the length and width of UT data excluded the most thinned points appropriate as the single UT evaluation method for thinned piping components.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.227-232
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• 2013

A number of components installed in the secondary system of nuclear power plants are exposed to aging mechanisms such as FAC (Flow-Accelerated Corrosion), Cavitation, Flashing, and LDIE (Liquid Droplet Impingement Erosion). Those aging mechanisms can lead to thinning of the components. In April 2013, one (1) inch small bore piping branched from the main steam line experienced leakage resulting from wall thinning in a 1,000 MWe Korean PWR nuclear power plant. During the normal operation, extracted steam from the main steam line goes to condenser through the small bore piping. The leak occurred in the downstream of an orifice. A control valve with vertical flow path was placed on in front of the orifice. This paper deals with UT (Ultrasonic Test) thickness data, SEM images, and numerical simulation results in order to analyze the extent of damage and the cause of leakage in the small bore piping. As a result, it is concluded that the main cause of the small bore pipe wall thinning is liquid droplet impingement erosion. Moreover, it is observed that the leak occurred at the reattachment point of the vortex flow in the downstream side of the orifice.