• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.149-157
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• 2014

The steam generator tubes of nuclear power plants have various types of corrosion failures during the plant operation. The stress corrosion cracking which occurs on the outer surface of tube is called the secondary side stress corrosion cracking and mainly occurs in the expansion-transition area of tube. The causes are the concentration of impurities by the sludge pile-up related to the geometry of its region and the residual stress by tube expansion in the process of steam generator manufacturing. Especially the directionality and sizes of residual stresses are differed according to the tube expansion methods and the direction and the frequency of tube cracks depend on their characteristics. In bases on the plant experiences, it is notified that circumferential cracks of tubes expanded with explosive expansion method are dominantly occurred compared to those of tubes done with hydraulic expansion one. Therefore in this study, according to tube expansion methods frequencies and sizes of tube cracks with specific direction are compared by means of accelerated immersion test and also the crack morphology and the specific chemicals from water-chemistry environment are observed through the fracture surface examination.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.40-46
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• 2014

The hydrogen embrittlement degree of 5 type high strength DP steel charged with hydrogen by electrochemical method was evaluated by small punch test(SP test). After SP test, SP absorbed energy was remarkably decreased from 363 kgf-mm to 209 kgf-mm with increasing hydrogen charging time from 5hr to 50hr at DP5 specimen under the $200mA/cm^2$ current density condition. It was investigated that the decrease of hydrogen charging amount and SP absorbed energy according to the increase of current density and hydrogen charging time had a linear relationship. And it also investigated that the change of bulb height appeared by the SP test was decreased from 1.79mm to 1.59mm with the hydrogen charging conditions. It was supposed that it could be used as indicator of the evaluation of hydrogen embrittlement because of the similar trend of the formal results of SP absorbed energy. From the SEM observation of fracture area by crack in bulb, the morphology of fracture surface according to increasement of the hydrogen charging amount was varied with the cleavage mode.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.513-522
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• 2013

The ODSCC detected in the TSP position of Ulchin 3&4 SGs are typical ODSCC of Alloy 600MA tubes. The causative chemical environment is formed by concentration of impurities inside the occluded region formed by the tube surface, egg crate strips, and sludge deposit there. Most cracks are detected at or near the line contacts between the tube surface and the egg crate strips. The region of dense crack population, as defined as between $4^{th}$ and $9^{th}$ TSPs, and near the center of hot leg hemisphere plane, coincided well with the region of preferential sludge deposition as defined by thermal hydraulics calculation using SGAP computer code. The cracks developed homogeneously in a wide range of SGs, so that the number of cracks detected each outage increased very rapidly since the first detection in the $8^{th}$ refueling outage. The root cause assessment focused on investigation of the difference in microstructure and manufacturing residual stress in order to reveal the cause of different susceptibilities to ODSCC among identical six units. The manufacturing residual stress as measured by XRD on OD surface and by split tube method indicated that the high residual stress of Alloy 600MA tube played a critical role in developing ODSCC. The level of residual stress showed substantial variations among the six units depending on details of straightening and OD grinding processes. Youngwang 3&4 tubes are less susceptible to ODSCC than U3 and U4 tubes because semi-continuous coarse chromium carbides are formed along the grain boundary of Y3&4 tubes, while there are finer less continuous chromium carbides in U3 and U4. The different carbide morphology is caused by the difference in cooling rate after mill anneal. There is a possibility that high chromium content in the Y3&4 tubes, still within the allowable range of Alloy 600, has made some contribution to the improved resistance to ODSCC. It is anticipated that ODSCC in Y5&6 SGs will be retarded more considerably than U3 SGs since the manufacturing residual stress in Y5&6 tubes is substantially lower than in U3 tubes, while the microstructure is similar with each other.

• Clean Technology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.76-82
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• 2015

Volatile organic compounds (VOC) free adhesives have been interested by many scientists and engineers due to environmental regulations and the safety of industrial workers. In this work, a series of composites composed with bisphenol A epoxy resin used as solvent, dicyandiamide, and promoter were prepared to investigate the most appropriate molar ratio for steel-steel adhesion. The cured test specimen of each composite were measured with universal testing machine (UTM) to figure out mechanical properties such as tensile strength, Young’s modulus, and elongation. Furthermore, the lap shear strength of the specimen was tested with UTM while impact resistance was measured with Izod impact tester. The composite whose molar ratio of epoxy resin to curing agent is 1 : 0.9 (sample 3), showed better tensile strength, coefficient of elastic modulus, elongation, and impact strength than other composites did. The highest tanδ from dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) was observed from sample 2 (epoxy resin: dicy = 1 : 0.7) while sample 3 showed slightly lower tanδ than that of 2. The morphology of the fracture surface of the cured composites from SEM showed that the number of subtle lines on the surface caused by impact increase as the contents of amine curing agent accrete. Furthermore, the viscosity change of sample 5 (epoxy resin: dicy = 1 : 1.3) was observed to confirm its storage stability.