• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.255.2-255
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• 2001

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.319.2-319
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• 2001

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.437-442
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• 2010

Flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC) leads to thinning of steel pipe walls that are exposed to flowing water or wet steam. From experience, it is seen that FAC damage to piping at fossil and nuclear plants can result in outages that require expensive repairs and can affect plant reliability and safety. CHECWORKS have been utilized in domestic nuclear plants as a predictive tool to assist FAC engineers in planning inspections and evaluating the inspection data so that piping failures caused by FAC can be prevented. However, CHECWORKS may be occasionally ignore local susceptible portions when predicting FAC damage in a group of pipelines after constructing a database for all the secondary side piping in nuclear plants. This paper describes the methodologies that can complement CHECWORKS and the verifications of CHECWORKS prediction results using numerical analysis. FAC susceptible locations determined using CHECWORKS for two pipeline groups of a nuclear plant was compared with determined using the numerical-analysis-based FLUENT.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.11 no.7
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• pp.2708-2712
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• 2010

Amines, ammonia or 3-methoxypropylamine (MPA), are used to maintain the optimized pH for the prevention of corrosion in the secondary side of Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs). They are differently dissociated as a function of temperature which is not same in each location of the water-steam cycle. pH at the operation temperature depends on temperature of fluid and equilibrium constants of water and amines. Thus, every amine provides the different pH in the entire secondary side so that pH is not only the sufficient parameter in corrosion control. The secondary parameter, i.e., buffer intensity, is the ability to maintain a stable pH when $H^+$ are added or removed due to the ingress of impurities or the reaction of corrosion. The buffer intensity is necessary to provide the selection criteria for the best pH control agent for secondary side and the basic understanding of the reason why the flow-accelerated corrosion(FAC) rate may demonstrate the bell-shape curve over temperature. The buffer intensities of ammonia and MPA were reviewed over the entire operation temperature of PWRs. The sufficient buffer intensity is provided for the inhibition of corrosion by ammonia in low temperature $(25{\sim}100^{\circ}C)$ and by DMA in high temperature $(150{\sim}250^{\circ}C)$. In terms of buffer intensity, i) the best pH control agent is an amine with $pK_a(T)$ range of pH(T)- $1{\leq}pK_a(T){\leq}pH(T)$ + 0.5 and ii) the amine solution should have sufficient buffer intensity, ${\beta}$ to inhibit corrosion, and iii) FAC rate may be maximum at the temperature, where ${\beta}_B/{\beta}$ ratio is lowest.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.11 no.8
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• pp.3112-3118
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• 2010

The pH control agent in PWRs, to insure the integrity of steam generator, was changed from ammonia to ethanolamine(ETA) which decreased pH at condensate system and low pressure feedwater heater drain system, so that several amines were investigated for the selection of the optimum amine. There was no single alternative amine to meet the optimum condition. The more volatile ammonia provides the higher pH in condensate, while the less volatile ETA increases the pH in wet steam area. Thus, the combined amine of ammonia and ETA is able to equally raise the pH in both region so that the flow accelerated corrosion be reduced in the every system of the secondary side and the integrity of steam generator be also improved in pressurized water reactors (PWRs).

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 1992.11a
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• pp.44-49
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• 1992

액체를 취급하는 기계.장치는 유속 및 회전속도 등이 빠르게 되면 유체충격과 정압의 저하에 따른 국부적 비등으로 인해 캐비테이션(cavitation) 현상이 발생한다. 이러한 캐비테이션현상에 따른 소음과 진동율 초래하고, 또한 기포의 붕괴에 따른 형격압으로 캐비테이션-침식(cavitation-erosion)이 발생하여 기계.장치의 구성재료에 손실이 일어남으로써 이들 기계의 효율을 저하시킴과 아울러 수명을 단종시킬 수 있다. 더욱이 부식성의 액체에 사용되는 기계.장치의 금속재료에는 캐비테이션(erosion-corrosion)이 중첩하여 발생하는 경우는 침식과 부식이 상호간에 가속하는 상승효과 때문에 기계.장치의 수명에 치명적인 영향을 미친다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 초음파 진동장치에 의한 각종 유중에서 베어링 합금 1종, 7종 및 켈-멧 4종에 대한 캐비테이션-침식실험을 실시하여, 침식손상거동및 특성등을 구명하고저 하였다.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.334-341
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• 2001

The chemical and geometric effects of weld on flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC) of SA106 Gr.C low alloy steel pipe in 3.5wt% NaCl and simulated feedwater of nuclear power plant have been investigated by using rotating cylinder electrode. Polarization test and weight loss test were conducted and compared at rotating speed of 2000rpm (3.14m/s) with the variables of chemical and geometric parameters. The results showed that the chemical effects were relatively larger than the geometric effects, and the welded parts were the local anode and preferentially corroded, which could be explained by the differences between microstructural and compositional parameters. On the other hand, under active corrosion conditions, the heat affected zone were severely corroded and microstructural effects became the important role in the whole process.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.54-62
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• 2009

The feedwater heaters are Critical components in a nuclear power plant. As the operation years of heaters go by, the maintenance costs required for continuous operation increase. When the carbon steel components in nuclear make contact with running fluid, the wall thinning caused by FAC (flow accelerated corrosion) can be generated. Local wall thinning is inevitable at the area around wet steam entrance to be attacked due to the long term operation. Sometimes the shell with thinned wall is eventually ruptured. To identify the relationship between the local wall thinning and fluid behavior of the feedwater heater, the practical data of a plant, which were based on ultrasonic thickness measurement tests, were analyzed and CFD(Computed Fluid Dynamics) analyses were performed.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.264-267
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• 2004

Wall thinning of carbon steel pipe components due to Flow-Accelerated Corrosion (FAC) is one of the most serious threats to the integrity of steam cycle piping systems in Nuclear Power Plants (NPP). Since the mid-1990s, secondary side piping systems in Korean NPPs have experienced wall thinning, leakages and ruptures caused by FAC. Korea Electric power Research Institute (KEPRI) and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., LTD. (KHNP) have conducted a study to develop the methodology for systematic pipe management and established the Korean Thinned Pipe Management Program (TPMP). To effectively maintain the integrity of piping system, FAC engineer should understand the criterions of the structural integrity evaluation and the safety margin assessment for the thinned pipe component. This paper describes the technical items of TPMP, and shows the example of the integrity evaluation and safety margin assessment for three thinned pipe component of a NPP.