• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.28 no.5
• /
• pp.93-98
• /
• 2010

The properties of GTA weld for ferritic stainless steel have been studied with different $O_2$ contents in Ar shielding gas at the constant welding speed. A small amount of $O_2$ (0.01~1.0%) was mixed in Ar shielding gas in order to improve the weld penetration. The fully penetrated GTA weld was acquired at 160A weld current shielded by pure Ar gas. Addition of oxygen larger than 0.1% made a full penetration at lower weld current than 160A. The small addition of $O_2$ in Ar shielding gas improved the penetration properties of GTA weld because the $O_2$ in the molten pool accelerated the flow of molten pool and changed the flow pattern from outward to inward direction. The impact energy and DBTT (Ductile- Brittle- Transition-Temperature) of the GTA weld shielded by Ar+$O_2$ (less 0.3%) was similar and the corrosion properties of GTA weld was slightly inferior to those of GTA weld shielded by pure Ar gas.

• Plant Journal
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.25-30
• /
• 2019

In this study, by varying flow patterns, which is one of the hydraulic factors of FAC, a strategy to reduce pipe wall thinning by mass transfer has been investigated. A similarity between heat transfer and mass transfer was verified via theoretical analysis, and local convective heat transfer coefficients were analyzed using a commercial numerical analysis program. When ribs were installed inside and outside of the internal surface in the straight section of the pipe, the maximum local heat transfer coefficient was shown to decrease substantially by up to 24.9% compared to the basic flow depending on the position and shape of ribs. If a guide vein was inserted in the pipe elbow, the maximum local heat transfer coefficient decreased by up to 26.7% compared to the basic flow depending on the internal surface area of the pipe by the guide vein.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.35 no.7
• /
• pp.717-722
• /
• 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 Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.11 no.7
• /
• pp.2708-2712
• /
• 2010

Amines, ammonia or 3-methoxypropylamine (MPA), are used to maintain the optimized pH for the prevention of corrosion in the secondary side of Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs). They are differently dissociated as a function of temperature which is not same in each location of the water-steam cycle. pH at the operation temperature depends on temperature of fluid and equilibrium constants of water and amines. Thus, every amine provides the different pH in the entire secondary side so that pH is not only the sufficient parameter in corrosion control. The secondary parameter, i.e., buffer intensity, is the ability to maintain a stable pH when $H^+$ are added or removed due to the ingress of impurities or the reaction of corrosion. The buffer intensity is necessary to provide the selection criteria for the best pH control agent for secondary side and the basic understanding of the reason why the flow-accelerated corrosion(FAC) rate may demonstrate the bell-shape curve over temperature. The buffer intensities of ammonia and MPA were reviewed over the entire operation temperature of PWRs. The sufficient buffer intensity is provided for the inhibition of corrosion by ammonia in low temperature $(25{\sim}100^{\circ}C)$ and by DMA in high temperature $(150{\sim}250^{\circ}C)$. In terms of buffer intensity, i) the best pH control agent is an amine with $pK_a(T)$ range of pH(T)- $1{\leq}pK_a(T){\leq}pH(T)$ + 0.5 and ii) the amine solution should have sufficient buffer intensity, ${\beta}$ to inhibit corrosion, and iii) FAC rate may be maximum at the temperature, where ${\beta}_B/{\beta}$ ratio is lowest.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.52 no.9
• /
• pp.2119-2129
• /
• 2020

Flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC), liquid droplet impingement erosion (LDIE), cavitation and flashing can cause continuous wall-thinning in nuclear secondary pipes. In order to prevent pipe rupture events resulting from the wall-thinning, most NPPs (nuclear power plants) implement their management programs, which include periodic thickness inspection using UT (ultrasonic test). Meanwhile, it is well known in field experiences that the thickness measurement errors (or deviations) are often comparable with the amount of thickness reduction. Because of these errors, it is difficult to estimate wall-thinning exactly whether the significant thinning has occurred in the inspected components or not. In the previous study, the authors presented an approximate estimation procedure as the first step for thickness measurement deviations at each inspected component and the statistical & quantitative characteristics of the measurement deviations using plant experience data. In this study, statistical significance was quantified for the current methods used for wall-thinning determination. Also, the authors proposed new estimation procedures for determining local wall-thinning to overcome the weakness of the current methods, in which the proposed procedure is based on analysis of variance (ANOVA) method using subgrouping of measured thinning values at all measurement grids. The new procedures were also quantified for their statistical significance. As the results, it is confirmed that the new methods have better estimation confidence than the methods having used until now.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
• /
• v.26 no.11
• /
• pp.55-61
• /
• 2009

The wall thinning defect of nuclear power pipe is mainly occurred by the affect of the flow accelerated corrosion (FAC) of fluid. This type of defect becomes the cause of damage or destruction of in carbon steel pipes. Therefore, it is very important to measure defect which is existed not only on the welding part but also on the whole field of pipe. This study use dual-beam Shearography, which can measure the out-of-plane deformation and the in-plane deformation by using another illuminated laser beam and simple image processing technique. And this study proposes Infrared thermography, which is a two-dimensional non-contact nondestructive evaluation that can detect internal defects from the thermal distribution by the inspection of infrared light radiated from the object surface. In this paper, defect of nuclear power pipe were, measured using dual-beam shearography and infrared thermography, quantitatively evaluated by the analysis of phase map and thermal image pattern.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.48 no.3
• /
• pp.820-830
• /
• 2016

Pipe wall thinning by flow-accelerated corrosion and various types of erosion is a significant and costly damage phenomenon in secondary piping systems of nuclear power plants (NPPs). Most NPPs have management programs to ensure pipe integrity due to wall thinning that includes periodic measurements for pipe wall thicknesses using nondestructive evaluation techniques. Numerous measurements using ultrasonic tests (UTs; one of the nondestructive evaluation technologies) have been performed during scheduled outages in NPPs. Using the thickness measurement data, wall thinning rates of each component are determined conservatively according to several evaluation methods developed by the United States Electric Power Research Institute. However, little is known about the conservativeness or reliability of the evaluation methods because of a lack of understanding of the measurement error. In this study, quantitative models for UT thickness measurement deviations of nuclear pipes and fittings were developed as the first step for establishing an optimized thinning evaluation procedure considering measurement error. In order to understand the characteristics of UT thickness measurement errors of nuclear pipes and fittings, round robin test results, which were obtained by previous researchers under laboratory conditions, were analyzed. Then, based on a large dataset of actual plant data from four NPPs, a quantitative model for UT thickness measurement deviation is proposed for plant conditions.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
• /
• 2008.11a
• /
• pp.317-321
• /
• 2008

Piping in the Nuclear Power plants (NPP) are mostly consisted of carbon steel pipe. The wall thinning defect is mainly occurred by the affect of the flow accelerated corrosion (FAC) of fluid which flows in carbon steel pipes. This type of defect becomes the cause of damage or destruction of piping. Therefore, it is very important to measure defect which is existed not only on the welding partbut also on the whole field of pipe. Over the years, Infrared thermography (IRT) has been used as a non destructive testing methods of the various kinds of materials. This technique has many merits and applied to the industrial field but has limitation to the materials. Therefore, this method was combined with lock-in technique. So IRT detection resolution has been progressively improved using lock-in technique. In this paper, the quantitative analysis results of the location and the size of wall thinning defect that is artificially processed inside the carbon steel pipe by using IRT are obtained.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
• /
• 2008.11a
• /
• pp.281-286
• /
• 2008

Wall thinning defect due to flow accelerated corrosion is one of major aging phenomena in most power plant industries, and it results in reducing load carrying capacity of the piping systems. A failure testing system was set up for real scale elbows containing various simulated wall thinning defects, and monotonic in-plane bending tests were performed under internal pressure to find out the failure behavior of thinned elbows. Various finite element models were generated and analysed to figure out and simulate the behavior for other thinning shapes and loading conditions. This paper presents the decreasing trends of load carrying capacity according to the thinning dimensions which were revealed from the investigation of finite element analysis results. A mechanical integrity evaluation model for thinned elbows was proposed, also. This model can be used to calculate the TES plastic load of thinned elbows for general internal pressure, thinning location, and in-plane bending direction.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.31-39
• /
• 2015

Pipe wall-thinning by flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC) and various types of erosion is a significant and costly damage phenomenon in secondary piping systems of nuclear power plants (NPPs). Most NPPs have management programs to ensure pipe integrity due to wall-thinning that includes periodic measurements for pipe wall thicknesses using ultrasonic tests (UTs). Nevertheless, thinning evaluations are not easy because the amount of thickness reduction being measured is often quite small compared to the accuracy of the inspection technique. U.S. Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) had proposed Total Point Method (TPM) as a thinning occurrence evaluation method, which is a very useful method for detecting locally thinned pipes or fittings. However, evaluation engineers have to discern manually the measurement data because there are no numerical algorithm for TPM. In this study, numerical algorithms were developed based on non-parametric and parametric statistical method.