• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.131.2-131
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• 2002

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.61-71
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• 2019

Flow-Accelerated Corrosion (FAC) is a phenomenon in which a protective coating on a metal surface is dissolved by a flow of fluid in a metal pipe, leading to continuous wall-thinning. Recently, many countries have developed computer codes to manage FAC in power plants, and the FAC prediction model in these computer codes plays an important role in predictive performance. Herein, the FAC prediction model was developed by applying a machine learning method and the conventional nonlinear regression method. The random forest, a widely used machine learning technique in predictive modeling led to easy calculation of FAC tendency for five input variables: flow rate, temperature, pH, Cr content, and dissolved oxygen concentration. However, the model showed significant errors in some input conditions, and it was difficult to obtain proper regression results without using additional data points. In contrast, nonlinear regression analysis predicted robust estimation even with relatively insufficient data by assuming an empirical equation and the model showed better predictive power when the interaction between DO and pH was considered. The comparative analysis of this study is believed to provide important insights for developing a more sophisticated FAC prediction model.

• 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.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2015

Feedwater Heaters are important components in a nuclear power plant. As the age of heater increases, the maintenance cost required for continuous operation also increases. Most heaters have the carbon steel shells, tube support plates and flow baffles. The carbon steel is susceptible to flow-accelerated corrosion. This is especially true if the flow has a two-phase mixture of steam and condensate. The wall thinning around the wet steam entrance area of the shell is inevitable during some long term operation. The structural integrity of the feedwater heater shell affects the safe operation of the nuclear power plant. Therefore, it is needed for the thinned shell to be repaired. The maintenance method for preventing failure of the shell should be determined by investigating various factors including the stress distribution of thinned area. The stress analysis of the shell including the steam entrance region is studied in this paper. The results of thinned shell is compared with that of intact shell.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.37-48
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• 2008

Flow fields inside feeder pipes have been simulated numerically using a CFD (computational fluid dynamics) code to calculate the shear stress distribution, which is the most important factor in predicting the local regions of feeder pipes highly susceptible to FAC (flow-accelerated corrosion)-induced wall thinning. The CFD approach, with schemes used in this study, to simulate the flow situations inside the CANDU feeder pipes has been verified as it showed a good agreement between the investigation results for the failed feedwater pipe at Surry unit 2 plant in the U.S. and the CFD calculation. Sensitivity studies of the three geometrical parameters, such as angle of the first and second bends, length of the first span between the grayloc hub and the first bend, and length of the second span between the first and the second bends have been performed. CFD analysis reveals that the local regions of feeder pipes of Wolsung unit 1 in Korea, on which wall thickness measurements have been performed so far, are not coincident with the worst regions predicted by the present CFD analysis located in the connection region of straight and bend pipe near the inlet part of the bend intrados. Finally, based on the results of the present CFD analysis, a guide to the selection of the weakest local positions where the measurement of wall thickness should be performed with higher priority has been provided.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.483-491
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• 2011

When pipe components made of carbon steel in nuclear, fossil, and industry are exposed to flowing fluid, wall thinning caused by FAC(flow accelerated corrosion) can be generated and eventually ruptured at the portion of pressure boundary. A study to identify the locations generating local wall thinning and to disclose turbulence coefficient related to the local wall thinning was performed. Experiment and numerical analyses for tee of down scaled piping components were performed and the results were compared. In particular, flow visualization experiment which was used alkali metallic salt was performed to find actual location of local wall thinning inside tee components. To disclose the relationship between turbulence coefficients and local wall thinning, numerical analyses were performed for tee components. The turbulence coefficients based on the numerical analyses were compared with the local wall thinning based on the measured 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 Welding and Joining
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.58-64
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• 2004

Although leakage at a low carbon steel pipe made by electrical resistance welding (ERW) was reported due to grooving corrosion, the cause for the corrosion has not yet been cleared. In order to clarify the main cause, failure analysis on the leaked pipe was carried out, followed by metallographic investigation and corrosion test for the various ERW pipe made with different welding heat input. The microstructure, particularly inclusion content, of the weldment is dependant on the welding heat input applied. For an improper low heat input, the amount of inclusion at the weld was high. High inclusion content accelerated grooving corrosion at the weld. It is therefore that welding heat input should be controlled based on the carbon content of the pipe in order to improve the corrosion resistance of the ERW pipe.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.30 no.7 s.250
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• pp.707-714
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• 2006

A numerical analysis study has performed in terms of fluid dynamics to identify the wall thinning generated in the main feedwater isolation valve body of a nuclear power plant. To review the relations between flow characteristics and the wall thinning induced by flow accelerated corrosion (FAC), numerical analysis using FLUENT code and ultrasonic tests (UT) were performed. The local velocities according to the analysis results were compared with the distribution of the measured wall thickness by ultrasonic tests. The comparison results show that the local velocity in the x-direction had no correlation with the wall thinning but the local velocity in the y-direction and turbulence intensity had a great influence on that. These results provide a good match to those of the previous studies - locations colliding vertically against components undergo severe wall thinning. These results may be utilized to the design modification and the wall thinning management for main feedwater isolation valves for preventing the wall thinning degradation.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.483-495
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• 2009

Feedwater heaters of many nuclear power plants have recently experienced severe wall thinning damange, which will increase as operating time progresses. Several nuclear power plants in Korea have experienced wall thinning damage in the area around the impingement baffle-installed downstream of the high pressure turbine extraction stream line-inside number 5A and 5B feedwater heaters. At that point, the extracted steam from the high pressure turbine is two phase fluid at high temperature, high pressure, and high speed. Since it flows in reverse direction after impinging the impingement baffle, the shell wall of the number 5 high pressure feedwater heater may be affected by flow-accelerated corrosion. This paper describes operation of experience and numerical analysis composed similar condition with real high pressure feedwater heater. This study applied squared, curved and new type impingement baffle plates to feedwater heater same as previous study. In addition, it shows difference of pressure distribution and value between single phase and two phase based on experience and numerical analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.55-63
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• 2010

Feedwater heaters of many nuclear power plants have recently experienced severe wall thinning damage, which will increase as operating time progresses. Several nuclear power plants in Korea have experienced wall thinning damage in the area around the impingement baffle inside feedwater heater installed downstream of the turbine extraction stream line. At that point, the extract steam from the turbine is two phase fluid at high temperature, high pressure, and high speed. Since it flows to reverse direction after impinging the impingement baffle, the shell wall of feedwater heaters may be affected by flow-accelerated corrosion. In this paper, to compare degree of shell wall thinning mitigation rate to squared type with mitigation rate of other type baffle plate, three different types of impingement baffle plate-squared, curved and mitigating type-applied inside the shell. With these comparison data, this paper describes operation of experiments and numerical analysis which is composed similar condition with real feed water heater. And flow visualization is operated for verification of experiments and numerical analysis. In conclusion, this study shows that mitigating type baffle plate is more effective than other baffle plate about prevention of pressure concentration and pressure value decrease.