• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.366-372
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• 2001

The ice plugging process consists of placing liquid nitrogen around a pipe and removing heat until the water in the pipe freezes and provides a solid plug or seal against fluid movement. This technique enables us to repair or inspect a pipe system without shutdown of entire system. A set of test apparatus for investigation of the liquid freezing phenomena during ice plugging is prepared. This study shows the characteristics of the liquid freezing and the heat transfer with various pipe and freezing jacket conditions. And in case there is flow of the fluid inside the pipe, the flow rate which can be able to form the ice plug is identified with the effect of the pipe diameter and freezing jacket length on the plug formation. The permissible maximum flow rate for the complete plug formation is approximately proportional to the freezing jacket length at the same pipe diameter condition.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.227-237
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• 1998

In case the systems have radioactivity, toxic liquid or expensive fluid, and have to be performed repair work at one point of the system pipe, the formation of an internal ice plug by the removal of heat from the pipe is often consideredas a useful method. In this procedure, an annular jacket is placed around the pipe, and the jacket is then filled with liquid Nitrogen(-196.deg. C). Thermal analysis by the finite element method based on the laboratory experiments has been constructed. The result of the finite element analysis on the experimental model shows to be reasonable, and thus the finite element analysis for different pipe size, material and thickness has been performed to see if the ice plugging procedure in various applications can be safely performed without possibility of damage to the pipe. It has been confirmed that in carbon steel pipes the maximum stress is found around the boundary of the freezing jacket, and the stress increases as pipe thickness increases, but the maximum stress shows no consistency along the increment of the pipe diameter. The maximum stresses appear lower than yield stress in carbon steel. It has been also shown that in stainless steel pipes the maximum stresses are also found around the boundary of the freezing jacket, but almost the same value in spite of different pipe size an thickness, and the maximum stresses show slightly higher than the yield stress of the stainless steel.