• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.119-120
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• 2007

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.429-435
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• 2010

In approximately fifty utilities, including KHNP (Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power), CHECWORKS is used as a tool for predicting and managing the wall thinning of carbon steel piping; this wall thinning is caused by flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC). It is known that CHECWORKS is only applicable to predict the wall thinning of piping with large bores. When dealing with small-bore steel piping, FAC engineers measure the thickness of the susceptible area that is selected on the basis of the experience and judgment of the engineer. This paper proposes the application of CHECWORKS for the management of wall thinning of small-bore piping. Four small-bore pipelines of a domestic nuclear power plant were analyzed from the viewpoints of FAC and fluid dynamics by using CHECWORKS and FLUENT code. Depending on the engineer's skill, CHECWORKS can also be used for the management of wall thinning of small-bore piping.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.4270-4274
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• 2011

A method is proposed for determining chromium content in the carbon steel pipes of a nuclear power plant (NPP) to evaluate wall thinning caused by flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC). A flat file was used to obtain filings samples. To assess sampling quality, a disk form of SRM 1227 was ground with the flat file, and the amount of Cr in the filings was determined by ICP-AES. The content of chromium in the filings of SRM 1227 was estimated as six times higher than the certified value due to the contamination of chromium in the file. To eliminate chromium contamination from the file, it was coated with WC-12Co using high-velocity oxygen-fuel (HVOF) spraying systems. After obtaining filings samples using the coated file, Cr content in four types of disk-form SRMs was determined by ICP-AES. The recoveries of Cr in the disk-form SRMs were in the range of 95.4-102.6%, with relative standard deviations from 0.43 to 3.0%. The Cr contents in the filings collected from the used outlet headers of the nuclear power plants using the flat file coated were in the range of 0.11-0.19%.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.821-830
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• 2007

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-installed downstream of the high pressure turbine extraction steam 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 the comparisons between the numerical results using the FLUENT code and the down scale experimental data on effect of geometry of the impingement baffle plate on the shell wall thinning. Additionally, a new type impingement baffle plate was installed above the impingement baffle plate in the feedwater heater and then the numerical and experimental study were performed in the same progress.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.112-120
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• 2004

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the piping failure frequency for the main feedwater system in domestic nuclear power plants(NPPs) for the application to an in-service inspection(ISI), leak before break(LBB) concept, aging management program(AMP), and probabilistic safety analysis(PSA). First, a database was developed for piping failure events in domestic NPPs, and 23 domestic piping failure events were collected. Among the 23 events, 12 locations of wall thinning due to flow accelerated corrosion(FAC) were identified in the main feedwater system in 4 domestic WH 3-loop NPPs. Two types of the piping failure frequency such as the damage frequency and rupture frequency were considered in this study. The damage frequency was calculated from both the plant population data and damage(s) including crack, wall thinning, leak, and/or rupture, while the rupture frequency was estimated by using both the well-known Jeffreys method and a new method considering the degradation due to FAC. The results showed that the damage frequencies based on the number of the base metal piping susceptible to FAC ranged from $1.26{\times}10^{-3}/cr.yr\;to\;3.91{\times}10^{-3}/cr.yr$ for the main feedwater system of domestic WH 3-loop NPPs. The rupture frequencies obtained from the Jeffreys method for the main feedwater system were $1.01{\times}10^{-2}/cr.yr\;and\;4.54{\times}10^{-3}/cr.yr$ for the domestic WH 3-loop NPPs and all the other domestic PWR NPPs respectively, while those from the new method considering the degradation were higher than those from the Jeffreys method by about an order of one.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.62-69
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• 2014

A huge number of carbon steel piping components installed in the secondary system of nuclear power plants are exposed to aging mechanisms such as FAC (Flow-Accelerated Corrosion), Cavitation, Flashing, and LDIE (Liquid Droplet Impingement Erosion). Those aging mechanisms can lead to thinning of the piping components. To manage the wall thinning degradation, most of utilities in the world predict the wall thinning rate based on the computational program such as CHECWORKS, COMSY, and BRT-CICERO, evaluate the UT (Ultrasonic Test) data, and determine next inspection timing, repair or replacement, if needed. There are several evaluation methods, such as band, blanket, and strip methods, commonly used for determining the wear of piping components from single UT inspection data. It has been identified that those single UT evaluation methods not only do not consider the manufacturing features of pipes, but also may exclude the data of the most thinned point when determining the representative wear rate of piping components. This paper describes a newly developed single UT evaluation method, E-Cross method, for solving above problems and introduces application examples for several pipes and elbows. It was identified that the E-Cross method using the length and width of UT data excluded the most thinned points appropriate as the single UT evaluation method for thinned piping components.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.89-95
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• 2012

U.S. Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has developed CHECWORKS program and applied it to power plant piping lines since some lines were ruptured by flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC) in 1978. Nowadays the CHECWORKS program has been used to manage pipe wall thinning phenomena caused by FAC. However, various erosion mechanisms can occur in carbon-steel piping. Most common forms of erosion are cavitation, flashing, liquid droplet impingement erosion (LDIE), and Solid Particle Erosion (SPE). Those erosion mechanisms cause pipe wall thinning, leaking, rupturing, and even result in unplanned shutdowns of utilities. Especially, in two phase condition, LDIE damages a wide scope of plant pipelines. Furthermore, LDIE is the major culprit to cause such as power runback by pipe leaking. This paper describes the methodologies that manage wall thinning and also predict LDIE wall thinning area. For this study, current properties of two-phase condition are investigated and LDIE areas are selected. The areas are checked by B-Scan method to detect the effect of wall thinning phenomena.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.218-224
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• 2012

Liquid droplet impingement erosion (LDIE) known to be generated in aircraft and turbine blades is recently appeared in nuclear piping. UT thickness measurements with both A-scan and B-scan UT inspection equipments were performed for a component estimated as susceptible to LDIE in feedwater heater vent system. The thickness data measured with B-Scan equipment were compared with those of A-Scan. Thermal hydraulic analysis based on ANSYS FLUENT code was performed to analyze the behavior of liquid droplets inside piping. The wall thinning rate and residual lifetime based on both existing Sanchez-Caldera equation and measuring data were also calculated to identify the applicability of the existing equation to the LDIE management of nuclear piping. Because Sanchez-Caldera equation do not consider the feature of magnetite formed inside piping, droplet size, colliding frequency, the development of new evaluation method urgently needs to manage the pipe wall thinning caused by LDIE.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.25 no.7
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• pp.377-385
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• 2013

In this study, the performance of an impeller according to blade length and pitch angle was studied experimentally by building a variable pitch impeller while changing blade length to review the effect of blade length and pitch angle on a fan's performance. The pitch angle was changed in six steps from $20^{\circ}{\sim}45^{\circ}$ at intervals of $5^{\circ}$ while the blade lengths were changed to 90 mm, 100 mm, 110 mm and 120 mm with an identical airfoil shape while carrying out the experiment. The results are summarized as follows : The air flow per static pressure of axial fans increased linearly with increase of pitch angle, but the high static pressure showed a decrease at a pitch angle of $35^{\circ}$. The shaft power increased proportionally to the pitch angle at all blade lengths; the larger the pitch angle, the larger the measured increase of shaft power. This is because the drag at the fan's front increases with the pitch angle. In the axial fans considered in this research, the flow and incre.