• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.191-199
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• 2021

In seismic design, hollow section concrete columns offer advantages by reducing the weight and seismic mass compared to concrete section RC bridge columns. However, the flexure-shear behavior and spirals strain of hollow section concrete columns are not well-understood. Octagonal RC bridge columns of a small-scale model were tested under cyclic lateral load with constant axial load. The volumetric ratio of the transverse spiral hoop of all specimens is 0.00206. The test results showed that the structural performance of the hollow specimen, such as the initial crack pattern, initial stiffness, and diagonal crack pattern, was comparable to that of the solid specimen. However, the lateral strength and ultimate displacement of the hollow specimen noticeably decreased after the drift ratio of 3%. The columns showed flexure-shear failure at the final stage. Analytical and experimental investigations are presented in this study to understand a correlation confinement steel ratio with neutral axis and a correlation between the strain of spirals and the shear resistance capacity of steel in hollow and solid section concrete columns. Furthermore, shear strength components (V_c, V_s·, V_p) and concrete stress were investigated.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.138-151
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• 2022

Cladding ballooning and rupture are the important phenomena at the early stage of a severe accident. Most severe accident analysis codes determine the cladding rupture based on simple parameter models. In this paper, a FRTMB module was developed using the thermal-mechanical model to analyze the fuel mechanical behavior. The purpose is to judge the cladding rupture with the severe accident analysis code. The FRTMB module was integrated into the self-developed severe accident analysis code ISAA to simulate the PHEBUS FPT3 experiment. The predicted rupture time and temperature of the cladding were basically consistent with the measured values, which verified the correctness and effectiveness of the FRTMB module. The results showed that the rising of gas pressure in the fuel rod and high temperature led to cladding ballooning. Consequently, the cladding hoop strain exceeded the strain limit, and the cladding burst. The developed FRTMB module can be applied not only to rod-type fuel, but also to plate-type fuel and other types of reactor fuel rods. Moreover, the FRTMB module can improve the channel blockage model of ISAA code and make contributions to analyzing the effect of clad ballooning on transient and subsequent parts of core degradation.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.243-249
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• 2022

The objective of the present study was to perform failure analysis of double-layered bellow (expansion joint), a core part of stress reliever, used to relieve axial stresses induced by thermal expansion of heat-transport pipes in a district heating system. The bellow underwent tensile or compressive stresses due to its structure in terms of position. A leaked position sufferred a fatigue with a tensile component for decades. A cracked bellow contained a higher fraction of martensitic phase because of manufacturing and usage histories, which induced more brittleness on the component. Inclusions in the inner layer of the bellow acted as a site of stress concentration, from which cracks initiated and then propagated along the hoop direction from the inner surface of the inner layer under fatigue loading conditions. As the crack reached critical thickness, the crack propagated to the outer surface at a higher rate, resulting in leakage of the stress reliever.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.461-474
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• 2023

Concrete-filled steel tubes are among the most efficient compressive structural members because the strength of the concrete is enhanced given that the surrounding steel tube confines the concrete laterally and the steel tube is restrained with regard to inward deformation due to the concrete existing inside. Accurate estimations of the ultimate compressive strength of CFT are important for efficient designs of CFT members. In this study, an analytical procedure that directly formulates the interaction between the concrete and steel tube by considering the nonlinear Poisson effect and stress-strain curve of the concrete including the confinement effect is proposed. The failure stress of concrete and von-Mises failure yield criterion of steel were used to consider multi-dimensional stresses. To verify the prediction capabilities of the proposed analytical procedure, 99 circular CFT experimental data instances from other studies were used for a comparison with AISC, Eurocode 4, and other researchers' predictions. From the comparison, it was revealed that the proposed procedure more accurately predicted the ultimate compressive strength of a circular CFT regardless of the range of the design variables, in this case the concrete compressive strength, yield strength of the steel tube and diameter relative to the thickness ratio of the tube.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.485-498
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• 2023

The need for carbon neutrality in the world strives the construction industry to reduce the use of construction materials. Aiming to this, recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) could be used as it reduces the carbon dioxide emissions. Currently, RAC is mainly used in non-structural members of civil constructions, seldom used in structural members. To broaden its structural use, a new type of composite column, i.e., the square and rectangular RAC filled FRP tubes (CFFTs), has been concerned in this study. The investigation on their axial compressive behavior through physical test and numerical analysis demonstrated that the load-carrying capacity of such column is reduced with the increase of replacement ratio of recycled aggregate and aspect ratio of section but can be improved by the increase of FRP confining stiffness and corner radius, said capacity can be equivalent to their steel reinforced concrete counterparts. At failure, the hoop strain at corner of tube is unexpectedly smaller than that at flat side of the tube although the FRP tube ruptured at its corner first, revealing a premature failure. Besides, a design-oriented stress-strain model of concrete and an analysis-oriented finite element model are proposed to predict the load-strain response of square and rectangular CFFT columns, which facilitates the engineering use of RAC in load-carrying structural members.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.12
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• pp.4499-4513
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• 2022

Spent fuel behavior of dry storage was simulated in a continuous state from steady-state operation by modifying FRAPCON-4.0 to incorporate spent fuel-specific fuel behavior models. Spent fuel behavior of a typical PWR was compared with that of NuScale Power Module (NPM^TM). Current PWR discharge burnup (60 MWd/kgU) gives a sufficient margin to the hoop stress limit of 90 MPa. Most hydrogen precipitation occurs in the first 50 years of dry storage, thereby no extra phenomenological safety factor is identified for extended dry storage up to 100 years. Regulation for spent fuel management can be significantly alleviated for LWR-based SMRs. Hydride embrittlement safety criterion is irrelevant to NuScale spent fuels; they have sufficiently lower plenum pressure and hydrogen contents compared to those of PWRs. Cladding creep out during dry storage reduces the subchannel area with burnup. The most deformed cladding outer diameter after 100 years of dry storage is found to be 9.64 mm for discharge burnup of 70 MWd/kgU. It may deteriorate heat transfer of dry storage by increasing flow resistance and decreasing the view factor of radiative heat transfer. Self-regulated by decreasing rod internal pressure with opening gap, cladding creep out closely reaches the saturated point after ~50 years of dry storage.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.158-163
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• 2022

The test method on the Type II high-pressure hydrogen storage tanks made of the metal wire hoop winding is a complex and high risk. Also closeup on the tank being test is difficult. In this study, we studied a mechanical test method for a high-pressure hydrogen tanks. This method must be simple, risk-free and possible to observe the change in microscopic behavior of a metal wire on a liner. As the results, it was possible to observe the microscopic behavior on the metal wire by the mechanical test method. Also, a simple and risk-free test was possible compared to the conventional test method for high pressure hydrogen tanks.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.89 no.4
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• pp.421-436
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• 2024

This research addresses experimentally the relationship between the excitation frequency and both hoop and axial wall stresses in a water storage tank. A low-density polyethylene tank with six different aspect ratios (water level to tank radius) was tested using a shake table. A laminar box with sand represents a soil site to simulate Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI). Sine excitations with eight frequencies that cover the first free vibration frequency of the tank-water system were applied. Additionally, Ricker wavelet excitations of two different dominant frequencies were considered. The maximum stresses are compared with those using a nonlinear elastic spring-mass model. The results reveal that the coincidence between the excitation frequency and the free-vibration frequency of the soil-tank-water system increases the sloshing intensity and the rigid-like body motion of the system, amplifying the stress development considerably. The relationship between the excitation frequency and wall stresses is nonlinear and depends simultaneously on both sloshing and uplift. In most cases, the maximum stresses using the nonlinear elastic spring-mass model agree with those from the experiments.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.506-519
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• 2024

To simulate the verification process using materials from a decommissioned reactor, a mock-up of the bottom-mounted instrument nozzle in the Kori 1 reactor, where the nozzle was attached to a plate by J-groove dissimilar metal welding, was fabricated. The mock-up distortion was quantified by measuring the plate surface displacement after welding. The residual stresses formed on the support plate surface and the inner surface of the nozzle were then analyzed using the hole-drilling method, contour method, and neutron diffraction. Welding simulations were performed using a 3D finite element method to validate the measured results. The measured and computed stress distributions on the support plate exhibited reasonable agreement. Conversely, the stresses on the inside of the nozzle were found to have an indisputable difference in the contour method and neutron diffraction measurements, which demonstrated strong tensile and compressive hoop stresses, respectively. The possible origins of such differences were investigated and we have provided some suggestions for a precise evaluation in the simulation. This study is expected to be useful in future research on decommissioned reactors.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.12
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• pp.4647-4658
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• 2023

In this paper, elastic-plastic fracture mechanics analysis is performed to determine the critical crack sizes of the multipurpose canister (MPC) manufactured using austenitic stainless steel under dynamic loading conditions that simulate drop accidents. Firstly, dynamic finite element (FE) analysis is performed using Abaqus v.2018 with the KORAD (Korea Radioactive Waste Agency)-21 model under two drop accident conditions. Through the FE analysis, critical locations and through-thickness stress distributions in the MPC are identified, where the maximum plastic strain occurs during impact loadings. Then, the evaluation using the failure assessment diagram (FAD) is performed by postulating an external surface crack at the critical location to determine the critical crack depth. It is found that, for the drop cases considered in this paper, the principal failure mechanism for the circumferential surface crack is found to be the plastic collapse due to dominant high bending axial stress in the thickness. For axial cracks, the plastic collapse is also the dominant failure mechanism due to high membrane hoop stress, followed by the ductile tearing analysis. When incorporating the strain rate effect on yield strength and fracture toughness, the critical crack depth increases from 10 to 20%.