• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.728-744
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• 2024

The presence of hydrogen absorbed by zirconium-based cladding materials during reactor operation can trigger degradation mechanisms and endanger the rod integrity. Ensuring the durability of the rods in extended time-frames like dry storage requires anticipating hydrogen behavior using numerical modeling. In this context, the present paper describes a hydrogen post-processing tool for Falcon - HYPE, a PSI's in-house tool able to calculate hydrogen uptake, transport, thermochemistry, reorientation of hydrides and hydrogen-related failure criteria. The tool extracts all necessary data from a Falcon output file; therefore, it can be considered loosely coupled to Falcon. HYPE has been successfully validated against experimental data and applied to reactor operation and interim storage scenarios to present its capabilities.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.24 no.1 s.173
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• pp.206-214
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• 2000

The pressure tube is a major component of the CANDU reactor, which supports nuclear fuel bundle and it's containment vessel. If a flaw is found during the periodic inspection from the pressure tube s. the integrity evaluation must be carried out. and the safety requirements must be satisfied for continued service. In order to complete the integrity evaluation, complicated and iterative calculation procedures are required. Besides, a lot of data and knowledge for the evaluation are required for the entire: integrity evaluation process. For this reason. an integrity evaluation system, which provides efficient of evaluation with the help of attached databases, was developed. The developed system was built on the basis of ASME Sec. XI and FFSG(Fitness For Service Guidelines for zirconium alloy pressure tubes in operating CANDU reactors) issued by the AECL, and covers the delayed hydride cracking(DHC). This system does not only provide various databases including the 3-D finite element analysis results on pressure tubes, inspection data and design specifications but also is compatible with other commercial database software. In order to verify the developed system, several case studies have been performed and the results were compared with those from AECL. A good agreement was observed between those two results.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.28 no.8 s.227
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• pp.1109-1115
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• 2004

The objective of this study is to elucidate what governs delayed hydride cracking (DHC) in Zr-2.5Nb tubes by correlating the striation spacings with DHCV(DHC Velocity). To this end, DHC tests were conducted on the compact tension specimens taken from the Zr-2.5Nb tubes at different temperatures ranging from 100 to $300^{\circ}C$ with a 3 to 6 data set at each test conditions. The compact tension specimens were electrolytically charged with 27 to 87 ppm H before DHC tests. After DHC tests, the striation spacings and DHCV were determined with the increasing the test temperature and yield strength. The striation spacing and DHCV increased as a function of yield $strength^2$ and the temperature. Since the plastic zone size ahead of the crack tip can be represented by ${\sim}(K_{IH}/{\sigma}_{Y})^2$, we conclude that the striation spacing is governed by the plastic zone size which in turn determines a gradient of hydrogen concentration at the crack tip. The relationship between the plastic zone size and the striation spacing was validated through a complimentary experiment using double cantilever beam specimens. Two main factors to govern DHCV of Zr-2.5Nb tubes are concluded to be hydrogen diffusion and a hydrogen concentration gradient at the crack tip that are controlled by temperature and yield strength, respectively. The activation energy of DHCV in the Zr-2.5Nb tubes is discussed on the basis of temperature dependency of hydrogen diffusion and the striation spacing.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2000

Delayed hydride cracking (DHC) velocity and threshold stress intensity factor for DHC ($K_{IH}$) tests in the radial direction on M11 pressure tube material in Wolsong unit 1 were carried out following the Atomic Energy Canada Limited (AECL) standard test procedure in order to identify the effect of undercooling on DHCV and to acquire the $K_{IH}$ data. The results showed that $K_{IH}$ 's were 8.8$\pm$0.8 MPa√m in the back offcut and 11.4$\pm$0.7 MPa√m in the front offcut. The fact that $K_{IH}$ in the front offcut is about 20% higher than that in the back offcut is attributed to the microstructural difference between the materials of the front and back ends. $K_{IH}$ 's in M11 pressure tube appeared to be higher than the values from the tubes made of double melted ingot reported earlier. This can be interpreted by the fact that very small amounts of Chlorine (Cl) and Phosphorus (P) are contained in the ingot and that the content of the harmful elements in the M11 pressure tube is equivalent to that made of a quadruple melting process. DHC velocities at 25$0^{\circ}C$ in the front offcut in the radial direction are measured to be 5~8$\times$10$^{-8}$ m/s. The results show that the prior thermal history change the DHC velocity significantly. This effect was confirmed by the experiment of undercooling prior to the DHC tests.DHC tests.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.238-248
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• 2019

In the high-temperature and high-pressure irradiation environments, the multi-field coupling processes of hydrogen diffusion, hydride precipitation and mechanical deformation in Zircaloy cladding tubes occur. To simulate this hydrogen-induced complex behavior, a multi-field coupling method is developed, with the irradiation hardening effects and hydride-precipitation-induced expansion and hardening effects involved in the mechanical constitutive relation. The out-pile tests for a cracked cladding tube after irradiation are simulated, and the numerical results of the multi-fields at different temperatures are obtained and analyzed. The results indicate that: (1) the hydrostatic stress gradient is the fundamental factor to activate the hydrogen-induced multi-field coupling behavior excluding the temperature gradient; (2) in the local crack-tip region, hydrides will precipitate faster at the considered higher temperatures, which can be fundamentally attributed to the sensitivity of TSSP and hydrogen diffusion coefficient to temperature. The mechanism is partly explained for the enlarged velocity values of delayed hydride cracking (DHC) at high temperatures before crack arrest. This work lays a foundation for the future research on DHC.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.262-272
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• 1998

The experiences and causes of pressure tube cracking accidents in the CANDU reactors and the development of the fuel channel at AECL(Atomic Energy Canada Limited) have been described. Most of the accidents were caused by Delayed Hydride Cracking(DHC). In the cases of the Pickering units 3&4 and the Bruce unit 2, excessive residual stresses induced by an improper rolled joint process played a role in DHC. In the Pickering unit 2, cracks formed by contact between the pressure and calandria tubes due to the movement of the garter spring were the direct cause of the failure. To extend the life of a fuel channel, several R&D programs examining each component of the fuel channel have been carried out in Canada. For a pressure tube, the main concern is focused on changing the fabrication processes, e.g., increasing cold working rate, conducting intermediate annealing and adding a third element like Fe, V, and Cr to the tube material. In addition to them, chromium plating on the end fitting and increasing wall thickness at both ends of the calandria tube are considered. There has also been much interest in the improvement of fuel channel performance in our country and several development programs are currently under way.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.155-160
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• 2001

This paper describes a probabilistic fracture mechanics (PFM) analysis based on Monte Carlo (MC) simulation. In the analysis of CANDU pressure tube, it is necessary to perform the PFM analyses based on statistical consideration of flaw generation time. A depth and an aspect ratio of initial semi-elliptical surface crack, a fracture toughness value, delayed hydride cracking (DHC) velocity, and flaw generation time are assumed to be probabilistic variables. In all the analyses, degradation of fracture toughness due to neutron irradiation is considered. Also, the failure criteria considered are plastic collapse, unstable fracture and crack penetration. For the crack growth by DHC, the failure probability was evaluated in due consideration of flaw generation time.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1998.05b
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• pp.93-98
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• 1998

CANDU 압력관의 집합조직을 원주 방향 집합조직에서 반경 방향 집합조직으로 변화시켜 $K_{IH}$ 를 평가하였다. 집합조직은 평면 변형에 의한 25% 확관 방법으로 번화시켰고 (0002) direct pole figure와 basal pole component (기저면 성분, Kearns number)로 분석하였다. 반경 방향집합조직의 압력관의 $K_{IH}$ 는 2$50^{\circ}C$에서 17MPa√m 이상으로 나타났으며, 이것은 상용 압력관의 $K_{IH}$ =8-10 MPa√m보다 70% 이상 높은 값이다. 반경 방향 집합조직의 압력관에서 나타나는 $K_{IH}$ 거동을 균열 진전면에서의 기저면 성분과 연계하여 분석하였으며, 평면 면형에 따른 집합조직의 변화는 슬립과 쌍정 기구의 작용으로 설명하였다. 본 연구의 결과는 CANDU 압책관의 delayed hydride cracking (DHC) 저항성 관점에서 반경 방향으로 집합조직을 제어하면 매우 효율적이라는 것을 보여 준다.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.192-192
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• 2008

As the lifetime of nuclear power plants (NPPs) reaches design life, the probability for fatal accidents increases. Most of accidents are known to be caused by degradation of mechanical components. Pressure tubes are the most important components in CANDU reactor. They are subjected to various aging mechanisms such as delayed hydride cracking (DHC), irradiation and corrosion, etc. Therefore, the integrity of pressure tube is key concern in CANDU reactor. Up to recently, conventional deterministic approaches have been utilized to evaluate the integrity of components. However, there are many uncertainties to prevent a rational evaluation. The objective of this paper is to assess the failure probability of pressure tube in CANDU. To do this, probability fracture mechanics (PFM) analysis based on the Genetic Algorithm (GA) is performed. For the verification of the analysis, a comparison of the PFM analysis using a commercial code and mathematical method is carried out.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.653-659
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• 2002

This paper describes a probabilistic fracture mechanics(PFM) analysis based on Monte Carlo(MC) simulation. In the analysis of CANDU pressure tube, the depth and aspect ratio of an initial semi-elliptical surface crack, a fracture toughness value and delayed hydride cracking(DHC) velocity are assumed to be probabilistic variables. As an example, some failure probabilities of piping and CANDU pressure tube are calculated using MC method with the stratified sampling MC technique, taking analysis conditions of normal operations. In the stratified MC simulation, a sampling space of probabilistic variables is divided into a number of small cells. For the verification of analysis results, a comparison study of the PFM analysis using other commercial code is carried out and a good agreement was observed between those results.