• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.37-41
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• 2020

The Nuclear containment building is a main safety-related structure that performs shielding and conservation functions to prevent highly radioactive materials from leakage to the outside environment in the case of various environmental conditions and postulated accidents. The containment building contains a reactor, steam generator, pressurizer, tank, reactor coolant system, auxiliary system and engineering safety system, and is designed so that highly radioactive materials above the limits specified in 10 CFR 100 do not escape to the outside environment in the case of LOCA(Loss of Coolant Accident) for instance. The containment metal liner plate(CLP) is a carbon steel plate with a nominal plate thickness of 6 mm, which functions as a mold for the wall and dome of the containment building when concrete is filled, fulfills airtightness to prevent leakage of seriously radioactive materials. In recent years, backside corrosion was found on the liner plate in some domestic nuclear power plants. The main cause of backside corrosion was unfilled concrete. In this paper, an inspection technique of assessing filling suitability for CLP backside concrete is developed. Results show that the validity of inspection technique for CLP backside concrete using vibration sensor is successfully verified.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.254-260
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• 2002

In this study, two types of mobile robotic systems using NDT (Non-destructive testing) method are developed for automatic diagnosis of the boiler tubes and large size pipelines. The developed mobile robots crawl the outer surface of the tubes or pipelines and detect in-pipe defects such as pinholes, cracks and thickness reduction by corrosion and/or erosion using EMAT (Electro-magnetic Acoustic Transducer). Automation of fault detection by means of mobile robotic systems for these large-scale structures helps to prevent significant troubles without danger of human beings under harmful environment.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.50-57
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• 2016

Pipeline is one of the most abundant components in petrochemical plant. It plays a critical role in transporting fluids. Some pipelines are thermally insulated by wrapping them with insulating materials to prevent the loss of energy. However, when corrosion begins under insulation, it cannot be easily seen without unwrapping the cover, and thus corrossion should be detected using a non-destructive ways such as ultrasound guided wave. In this paper, the piping where the CUI (Corrosion Under Insulation) which occurs in the insulation parts guided waves effectively the optimum condition which is theoretical for selected guided waves phase velocity dispersion curve and wave-structure. The results of this study are expected to be directly utilized for onsite inspection of pipeline's CUI in many petrochemical plants.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.36 no.10
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• pp.1235-1239
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• 2012

Primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC) has been observed around the weld region of control rod drive mechanism (CRDM) nozzles in nuclear power plants overseas. The weld has a J-shaped groove and it connects the CRDM nozzle with the reactor vessel upper head (RVUH). It is a dissimilar metal weld (DMW), because the CRDM is made of alloy 600 and the RVUH is made of carbon steel. In this study, finite element analysis (FEA) was performed to estimate the stress condition around the weld region. Generally, it is known that a high tensile region is more susceptible to PWSCC. FEA was performed as for the condition of welding, hydrostatic test and normal operation successively to observe how the residual stress changes due to plant condition. The FEA results show that a high tensile stress region is formed around the weld starting point on the inner surface and around the weld stop point on the outer surface.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.62-71
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• 2018

According to own investigation conducted by Korea Gas Safety Corporation Gas Safety Research Institute in 2017, the length of underground pipes in domestic high-pressure gas pipelines is approximately 770km, of which 84% is buried in Ulsan and Yeosu industrial complexes. In particular, 56% of underground pipelines have been in operation for more than 20 years. This suggests urgent management of buried high pressure gas pipelines. PHMSA in US and EGIG in Europe, major causes of accidents in buried gas pipelines are reported as third party damage, external corrosion and loss of pipe wall thickness. Therefore, it is important to evaluate whether the defects affect the remaining life of the pipe when defects occur in the pipe. DNV and ASME have evaluated the residual strength of pipelines through the hydraulic rupture test using pipe specimens with artifact flaws. Once the operating pressure is known through the residual strength of the pipe, the wall thickness at the point at which the pipe ruptures is calculated. If we know the accurate rate of corrosion growth, we can predict the remaining life of pipe. In the study, we carried out experiments with A53 Grade.B and A106 Grade.B, which account for 80% of domestic buried pipes. In order to modify the existing model equation, specimens with a defect depth of 80% to 90% was tested, and a formula expressing the relationship between defect and residual strength was made.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.100-100
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• 2009

This paper is concerned with numerical analyses of residual stresses in welds and material's susceptibility to stress corrosion cracking (SCC) for the primary piping system in nuclear power plants: Both the dissimilar metal weld (DMW) for stainless steel to low alloy steel joints and the similar metal weld (SMW) for forged stainless steel to cast stainless steel joints are considered. Thermal elasto-plastic analyses using the finite element method (FEM) are performed to predict residual stresses generated in fabrication welding and its related processes for both the DMW and SMW, including effects of quenching for cast stainless steel piping, machining of the DMW root, and grinding of the SMW root. As a result, the effect of quenching should be included in the evaluation of residual stresses in the SMW for the cast stainless steel piping. It is deemed that residual stresses in both the DMW and SMW would not affect the SCC susceptibility of the welds providing that the welding processes are completed without any weld repair on the inside wall of the joint. However, the grinding process if performed on the safe-end to piping weld, would produce a high level of residual stresses in the inner surface region and thus a stress improvement process (e.g. buffing) should be considered to reduce susceptibilities to SCC.