• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.87-93
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• 2015

This study was performed to develop repair technology for J-Groove dissimilar metal weld of pressurizer heater sleeve in nuclear power plants. Pad, J-Groove automatic welding and mechanical machining equipments to develop repair technology using 'Half Nozzle Repair' were designed and manufactured. To obtain the optimum welding process parameters during Pad temperbead overlay welding, several welding experiments using Taguchi method were conducted. Weldability of Pad overlay weld specimens was estimated by PT/RT test, FE-SEM, EDS and Vickers hardness test. Also, J-Groove welding to adjust weld shape conditions requiring in ASME Code was carried out and its integrity of weld specimens was evaluated through PT/RT test and optical microscope. Consequently, it was revealed that Pad and J-Groove overlay welding for dissimilar metal weld of pressurizer heater sleeve could be possible to meet Code standard without weld defect.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.1-5
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• 2015

A failure or degradation of reactor upper head penetration is a troublesome problem at Nuclear Power Plants. A flaw in the reactor upper head penetration can result in unplanned plant shutdown for repair, and cause serious economic losses on the plants. Consequently, a detection of flaws is a matter of more importance. Until now, only the base metal, not including J-groove weld, in reactor upper head penetration has been inspected in accordance with 10 CFR 50.55a and ASME code case N-729-1 requirements. Accordingly, it is rather difficult to detect manufacturing defects and repair defects in J-groove weld. This paper presents a case study on the application of Time of Flight Diffraction UT technique to examine the J-groove weld in reactor head penetration using reactor head penetration mockup with artificial flaws. We expect that this study result will offer a way to understand the non-destructive examination technology for J-groove weld in reactor upper head penetration.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.100-109
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• 2020

Pipelines subjected to ground movement would be easily exposed to large-scale deformation. Since such deformations may cause the pipeline failure, it is important to ensure the safety of pipelines in various operation conditions. However, crack in weld metal have been considered as one of the main causes that can deteriorate the structural integrity of the pipeline. For this reason, the structural integrity of the pipe containing the crack in the weld should be obtained. In order to assess cracked pipe, J-integral and crack-tip opening displacement(CTOD) have been applied widely as the elastic-plastic fracture mechanics parameters representing crack driving force. In this study, engineering solutions to calculate the J-integral and CTOD of pipes with a circumferential outer surface crack in the weld are proposed. For this purpose, 3-dimensional elastic-plastic finite element(FE) analyses have been performed considering the effect of overmatch and width of weld. The shape of the weld was simplified to I-groove, and axial displacement was employed as for loading condition. Based on FE results, the effects of crack size, material properties and width of weldment on J-integral and CTOD were investigated. Additionally, the J-integral and CTOD for I-groove were compared with those for V-groove to examine the effects of the weld shape, and a proportionality coefficient of J-integral and CTOD was calculated from the results of this paper.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2004.06a
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• pp.859-864
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• 2004

In this study, we compared the fatigue characteristics of weld metal with those of base metal. Also we examined the influence of heat treatment and weld bead profiles for the fatigue life of weld metals. From the experimental results, it was seen that the fatigue characteristics of welded specimens with a grinded toe of bead are slightly better than those are not grinded. Also the fatigue life is affected more by the stress concentration on the profile change in the weld toe rather than by residual stress influence, because the fatigue characteristic of weld metals was not influenced whether the heat treatment is conducted or not.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.411-418
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• 2008

In this work, the effect of strength mismatch on plastic limit loads is quantified for similar metal weld plates with cracks under tension load, via three-dimensional, small strain elastic-perfectly plastic finite element analyses. Relevant variables related to plate geometry and crack length are systematically varied, in addition to the weld width. An important finding is that mis-match limit loads can be uniquely quantified through strength mis-match ratio and one geometry-related parameter. Based on the proposed limit load solutions, reference stress based J-integral estimates is also investigated. When the reference stress is defined by the mis-match limit load, predicted J-integral values agree overall well with FE results.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.43-51
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• 1992

The plastic zone formed around a notch tip is important in analyzing the fracture toughness of structures and particularly weld cracks existed in the weld HAZ (heat affected zone) which produces local plastic deformation at the crack tip. Therefore, in order to analyze the fracture toughness in weld HAZ, it is necessary to investigate the new fracture toughness parameter $K_{c}$ $^{*}$ and critical plastic strain energy $W_{p}$ $^{c}$ according to the shape and size of the plastic zone. 1) If the temperature corresponding to $K_{c}$ $^{*}$=130kg-m $m^{-3}$ 2/ is determined, transition temperature $T_{tr}$ the magnitude of plastic zone size, and heat input change depending on the fracture toughness. The blunted amounts of the parent and weld HAZ show mild linear variation until .delta.=0.4mm and then increase very steeply there after. 2) The relation between the plastic strain energy( $W^{p}$ ) and transition temperature( $T_{*}$tr) in parent metal is more sensitive than that of weld HAZ. However, the plastic strain energy depends on the transition temperature, and thus the yield stress, .sigma.$_{ys}$ becomes an important parameter for plastic strain energy. 3) The critical plastic strain energy( $W_{p}$ $^{c}$ ) absorbed by the plastic zone at the notch tip indicated in case of parent metal: 60J/mm, in case of heat input(20KJ/cm): 75J/mm, in case of heat input(30KJ/cm); 50J/mmJ/mm.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.264-266
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• 2004

for the kぉ mechanics analysis of a crack in a weld of dissimilar steels, residual stress analysis and fracture analysis must be performed simultaneously. The standard definition of the J-integral leads to a path dependent value in the presence of a residual stress field. And unlike cracks in homogeneous materials, a bimaterial interface crack always induces both opening and shearing modes of stress in the vicinity of the crack tip. Therefore, it is necessary to develope a path independent J-integral definition for a crack in a residual stress field generated by welding of dissimilar steels. This paper addresses the modification of the Rice-J-integral to produce a path independent J-integral when residual stresses due to welding of dissimilar steels and external forces are present. The residual stress problem is heated as an initial stain problem and the J-integral proposed for this class of problems is used And a program which can evaluate the 1-integral for a crack in a weld of dissimialr steels is developed using proposed J-integral definition.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.354-366
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• 2020

This work mainly focuses on determination of the fully plastic J-integral solutions for welded center cracked plates subjected to remote tension loading. Detailed three-dimensional elasticeplastic Finite Element Analyses (FEA) were implemented to compute the fully plastic J-integral along the crack front for a wide range of crack geometries, material properties and weld strength mismatch ratios for 900 cases. According to the database generated from FEA, Back-propagation Neural Network (BPNN) model was proposed to predict the values and distributions of fully plastic J-integral along crack front based on the variables used in FEA. The determination coefficient R2 is greater than 0.99, indicating the robustness and goodness of fit of the developed BPNN model. The network model can accurately and efficiently predict the elastic-plastic J-integral for weld centerline crack, which can be used to perform fracture analyses and safety assessment for welded center cracked plates with varying strength mismatch conditions under uniaxial loading.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2011.06a
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• pp.503-504
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• 2011

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.165-167
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• 2005

Compared with Inconel 625 (ERNiCrMo-3) weld, Nb-free Alloy 59 (ERNiCrMo-13) weld with 15% Mo showed much higher resistance to hot cracking. Especially in the condition of current 350A and 30CPM of welding speed, no crack was detected at Inconel 625 fillet weld. Furthermore, it was found that the strength of Alloy 59 is sensitive to welding heat input. Up to around 14kJ/cm of heat input, Alloy 59 showed 678N/$mm^{2}$ of ultimate strength and 466N/$mm^{2}$ of yield strength. However, as heat input increased above 14kJ/cm, Alloy 59 weld could not satisfy the weld strength required for European LNG tank.