• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.23 no.7 s.166
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• pp.1147-1154
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• 1999

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the fracture resistance characteristics of SA508 CL.1a carbon steel, and their associated welds manufactured for primary coolant piping system of nuclear power plants. The effect of various parameters such as pipe size, welding method and chemical composition on the material properties were discussed. Test results showed that the offset of pipe size on tincture toughness was negligible, while the effect of welding method on fracture toughness was significant. In addition, Fracture toughness for carbon steel was influenced by silicon contents due to the different steel refining processes.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.312-323
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• 1994

1986년 12월 미국의 Surry Unit 2 발전소에서 발생한 급수배관의 대형 파손사고가 침식-부식(erosion-corrosion) 현상에 의해 일어난 것으로 밝혀진 이후, 조사 결과 2차계통에 광범위하게 사용되는 탄소강, 저합금강 재질에서 이와 유사한 손상사례가 많이 나타나는 것으로 밝혀졌다. 이러한 침식-부식 손상은 물-증기로 이루어진 계의 단상(water) 또는 2상(water-wet steam) 조건에서 발생된다. 국내의 원자력 발전소 2차계통에서도 이러한 침식-부식 손상이 나타나고 있으며, 현재 손상원인 해석과 이에 대한 대책 수립이 시급히 요청되고 있다. 본 기고문은 국내 원전의 침식-부식 손상조사와 이의 대책수립을 위한 연구에 활용될 수 있는 침식-부식 손상의 개념, 현상학적 양상, 주요인자의 영향 및 해외 원전의 손상경험 사례 등을 종합하여 정리한 것이다.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.483-489
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• 2002

The computer simulation has been done for non-insulated and insulated pipes which are vacant or half filled with liquid. The simulation results showed that the density profile on the radiography is continuous and symmetrical around the center of pipe in the case of vacant pipe. On the other hand the density profiles are not symmetrical and depend on geometrical setting for radiography in the case of half filled pipes. Finally, experimental testing on a non-insulated carbon steel pipe with artificial notches of different depth is carried out using Ir-192 and industrial film. Comparing the measured density profile on the radiograph to the calculated one, it has been shown that it is possible to evaluate thickness variation by measuring density profile on a radiograph.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.81-88
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• 2001

This study proposed an analytical method to evaluate a local allowable wall thickness (LAWT) for locally thinned pipe subjected to internal pressure and bending moment. In this method, the stresses in the thinned region were calculated by finite element analysis and plastic collapse was applied as a failure criterion of thinned pipe. Using this method, LAWT for a simplified thinned pipe was evaluated with variation in axial extent of thinned area, and it was compared with allowable wall thickness provided by previous pipe wall thickness criteria. The results showed that the LAWT was lower, about 50%, than that calculated by construction code or ASME Code N-597, and it was higher, about 2 times, than that estimated by evaluation model based on pipe experiments. In addition, LAWT was decreased with increasing axial extent of thinned area and saturated with further increase in axial extent. And, the variation in LAWT with axial extent of thinned area depended on type of load, especially a magnitude of bending moment, considering in the evaluation.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.35 no.7
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• pp.717-722
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• 2011

The aim of this study is to identify the locations at which local wall thinning occurs and to determine the turbulence coefficients related to local wall thinning. Experiments and numerical analyses of the tee sections of different down-scaled piping components were performed and the results were compared. Numerical analyses of full-scale models of actual plants were performed in order to simulate the flow behaviors inside the piping components. In order to determine the relationship between the turbulence coefficients and the rate of local wall thinning, numerical analyses of the tee components in the main feedwater systems were performed. The turbulence coefficients obtained from the numerical analyses were compared with the local wear rate obtained from the measurement data. From the comparison of the results, the vertical flow velocity component (Vr) flowing to the wall after separating in the wall due to the geometrical configuration and colliding with the wall directly at an angle of some degree was analogous to the configuration of local wall thinning.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.191-198
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• 2008

Flow accelerated corrosion (FAC) phenomenon of low alloy carbon steels in nuclear power plant has been known as one of major degradation mechanisms. It has a potential to cause nuclear pipe rupture accident which may directly impact on the plant reliability and safety. Recently, the equipotential switching direct current potential drop (ES-DCPD) method has been developed, by the present authors, as a method to monitor wall loss in a piping. This method can rapidly monitor the thinning of piping, utilizing either the wide range monitoring (WiRM) or the narrow range monitoring (NaRM) technique. WiRM is a method to monitor wide range of straight piping, whereas NaRM focuses significantly on a narrow range such as an elbow. WiRM and NaRM can improve the reliability of the current FAC screening method that is based on computer modeling on fluid flow conditions. In this paper, the measurements by ES-DCPD are performed with signal sensitivity analyses in the laboratory environment for extended period and showed the viability of ES-DCPD for real plant applications.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.84-90
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• 2023

Oxygen, which is always present in the atmosphere among the three elements of combustion, can cause fires and explosions with only a very small amount of combustibles under high-pressure oxygen conditions. The burning rate is also significant, and can rise to temperatures that can have a direct impact, such as melting process equipment and piping in an instant. Therefore, accidents that occur under high pressure oxygen often cause more damage than other accidents. Recently, while operating a valve installed in an oxygen supply pipe, rapid combustion and rupture occurred inside, resulting in human casualties due to an explosion. In the case of an old carbon steel pipe, particles generated during operation become combustible and can cause accidents. . In particular, since oxygen facilities are facilities licensed under the High Pressure Gas Safety Management Actand there are no restrictions under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, accumulating these standards is of utmost importance. Therefore, in this study, based on accident cases and overseas standards, methods for improving safety when handling hyperbaric oxygen are reviewed.

• Proceedings of the Korea Committee for Ocean Resources and Engineering Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.134-139
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• 2002

Fracture behaviors of pipes with local wall thinning are very important for the integrity of nuclear power plant. However, effects of local wall thinning on strength and fracture behaviors of piping system were not well studied. Acoustic emission(AE) has been widely used in various fields because of its extreme sensitivity, dynamic detection ability and location of growing defects. In this study, we investigated failure modes of locally wall thinned pipes and AE signals by bending test. From test results, we could be divided four types of failure modes of ovalization, crack initiation after ovalization, local buckling and crack initiation after local buckling. And fracture behaviors such as elastic region, yielding range, plastic deformation range and crack progress could be evaluated by AE counts, accumulative counts and time-frequency analysis during bending test. It is expected to be basic data that can protect a risk according to local wall thinning of pipes, as a real time test of AE.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.173-178
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• 2012

To manage the wall thinning of carbon steel piping in nuclear power plants, the utility of Korea has performed thickness inspection for some quantity of pipe components during refueling outages and determined whether repair or replacement after evaluating UT (Ultrasonic Test) data. When the existing UT data evaluation methods, such as Band, Blanket, PTP (Point to Point) Methods, are applied to a certain pipe component, unnecessary re-inspecting situations may be generated even though the component does not thinned. In those cases, economical loss caused by repeated inspection and problems of maintaining the pipe integrity followed by decreasing of newly inspected components may be generated. EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) in USA has suggested several statistical methods, TPM (Total Point Method), LSS (Least Square Slope) Method, etc. to distinguish whether multiple inspecting components have thinned or not. This paper presents the analysis results for multiple inspecting components over three times based on both NAM (Near Area of Minimum) Method developed by KEPCO-E&C and the other methods suggested by EPRI.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.11-22
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• 1997

It is very essential to get the accurate classification of defects in primary pressure vessel and piping welds for the safety of nuclear power plant. Ultrasonic testing has been widely applied to inspect primary pressure vessel and piping welds of nuclear power plants during PSI / ISI. Classification of flaws in weldments from their ultrasonic scattering signals is very important in quantitative nondestructive evaluation. This problem is ideally suited to a modern ultrasonic Pattern recognition technique. Here, a brief discussion on systematic approach to this methodology is presented including ultrasonic feature extraction, feature selection and classification. A stronger emphasis is placed on Fuzzy-UTSCS (UT signal classification system) as efficient classifiers for many practical classification problems. As an example Fuzzy-UTSCS is applied to classify flaws in ferrite pressure vessel weldments into two types such as linear and volumetric. It is shown that Fuzzy-UTSCS is able to exhibit higher performance than other classifiers in the defect classification.