• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.366-372
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• 2001

The ice plugging process consists of placing liquid nitrogen around a pipe and removing heat until the water in the pipe freezes and provides a solid plug or seal against fluid movement. This technique enables us to repair or inspect a pipe system without shutdown of entire system. A set of test apparatus for investigation of the liquid freezing phenomena during ice plugging is prepared. This study shows the characteristics of the liquid freezing and the heat transfer with various pipe and freezing jacket conditions. And in case there is flow of the fluid inside the pipe, the flow rate which can be able to form the ice plug is identified with the effect of the pipe diameter and freezing jacket length on the plug formation. The permissible maximum flow rate for the complete plug formation is approximately proportional to the freezing jacket length at the same pipe diameter condition.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.105-112
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• 2017

A lot of piping systems have been used from nuclear power systems to water supply systems. The maintenance of the piping systems is needed to ensure proper operation of the piping systems. Failure of the large pipe systems especially such as KDHC(Korea District Heating Corporation) can be a matter directly related to the enterprise productivity and profitability. It can also lead to very important issues in promoting public safety and convenience. Therefore a method of quick and safety repairs have been emerged as the most important problem. In this study, freezing seal isolation method using liquid nitrogen cryogenic refrigerant was developed for the maintenance of a pre insulated heat transport pipe of KDHC with a diameter of 300 mm. In this study, by employing computational analysis techniques we performed the flow and heat transfer analysis for the targeted pre insulated heat transfer pipe and freezing seal jacket(ice-Plug) and have selected for optimal system. The detailed design model based on the results of the computational analysis finally was produced. A laboratory-scale test apparatus were designed and the freezing seal isolation self-test carried out. Also the performance assessment tests in the test bed of KDHC were carried out for on-site application.