• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.1264-1272
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• 2016

The accurate estimation of leak rate through cracks is crucial in applying the leak before break (LBB) concept to pipeline design in nuclear power plants. Because of its importance, several programs were developed based on the several proposed flow models, and used in nuclear power industries. As the flow models were developed for a homogeneous pipe material, however, some difficulties were encountered in estimating leak rates for bimaterial pipes. In this paper, a flow model is proposed to estimate leak rate in bimaterial pipes based on the modified Henry-Fauske flow model. In the new flow model, different crack morphology parameters can be considered in two parts of a flow path. In addition, based on the proposed flow model, a program was developed to estimate leak rate for a crack with linearly varying cross-sectional area. Using the program, leak rates were calculated for through-thickness cracks with constant or linearly varying cross-sectional areas in a bimaterial pipe. The leak rate results were then compared and discussed in comparison with the results for a homogeneous pipe. The effects of the crack morphology parameters and the variation in cross-sectional area on the leak rate were examined and discussed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.332-339
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• 2015

The leak before break (LBB) concept is widely used in designing pipe lines in nuclear power plants. According to the concept, the amount of leaking liquid from a pipe should be more than the minimum detectable leak rate of a leak detection system before catastrophic failure occurs. Therefore, accurate estimation of the leak rate is important to evaluate the validity of the LBB concept in pipe line design. In this paper, a program was developed to estimate the leak rate through circumferential cracks in pipes in nuclear power plants using the Henry-Fauske flow model and modified Henry-Fauske flow model. By using the developed program, the leak rate was calculated for a circumferential crack in a sample pipe, and the effect of the flow model on the leak rate was examined. Treating the crack morphology parameters as random variables, the statistical behavior of the leak rate was also examined. As a result, it was found that the crack morphology parameters have a strong effect on the leak rate and the statistical behavior of the leak rate can be simulated using normally distributed crack morphology parameters.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.71-75
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• 2010

Leak detection technology is a challenging research until nowadays, because it has wide and various applications in industry. Furthermore pneumatic component reliability test based on ISO requires air leakage measurement. The conventional measurement methods need a complex operation and the calibration of leak detector. Tracing the history of our study, we proposed a new method for measurement of leak flow rate using isothermal chamber. In this study, propose a simulation model of isothermal chamber by infinitesimal flow -rate, such as a leak flow-rate. The effectiveness of the proposed simulation model is proved by simulation and experimental results. Base on the comparison results, proposed simulation model is good agreement with experimental results.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.9
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• pp.3594-3601
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• 2024

It is difficult to detect a small-scale leakage in a nuclear power plant (NPP) quickly and take appropriate action. Delaying these procedures can have adverse effects on NPPs. In this paper, we propose leak flow rate prediction using the bidirectional gated recurrent unit (Bi-GRU) method to detect leakage quickly and accurately in small-scale leakage situations because large-scale leak rates are known to be predicted accurately. The data were acquired by simulating small loss-of-coolant accidents (LOCA) or small-scale leakage situations using the modular accident analysis program (MAAP) code. In addition, to improve prediction performance, data were collected by distinguishing the break sizes in more detail. In addition, the prediction accuracy was improved by performing both LOCA diagnosis and leak flow rate prediction in small LOCA situations. The prediction model developed using the Bi-GRU showed a superior prediction performance compared with other artificial intelligence methods. Accordingly, the accurate and effective prediction model for small-scale leakage situations proposed herein is expected to support operators in decision-making and taking actions.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.14-21
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• 2008

The prediction for gaseous leak flows through a narrow crack is important for a leak-before-break (LBB) analysis. Therefore, the methodology to obtain the flow characteristics of gaseous leak flow in a narrow crack for the wide range by using the product of friction factor and Reynolds number correlations (fRe) for a micro-channel is developed and presented. The correlation applied here was proposed by the previous study. The fourth-order Runge-Kutta method was employed to integrate the nonlinear ordinary differential equation for the pressure and the regular-Falsi method was also employed to find the inlet Mach number. A narrow crack whose opening displacement ranges from 10 to $100{\mu}m$ with a crack length in the range from 2 to 200mm was chosen for sample prediction. The present results are compared with both numerical simulation results and available experimental measurements. The results are in excellent agreement with them. The leak flow rate can be approximately predicted by using proposed methodology.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.238-242
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• 2017

The effect of crack shape on the leak flow characteristics in pipelinesis investigated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. In the present study, two different crack shapes are considered: axial crack andcircumferential crack. The present simulation results showed that under the same crack area, the aspect ratio influences the leak rate. When the aspect ratio is1, the leak rate reaches the minimum value. Moreover, the leak rate in the circumferentialcrack is slightly larger than that in the axial crack. The change in the leak rateaccording to the crack shape could be explained by the different velocitydistributions at the leak position depending on the aspect ratio.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2011.06a
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• pp.525-526
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• 2011

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.171-177
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• 2016

Plate heat exchangers have been widely used in various fields because of their high heat transfer coefficients, small area of installation, and ease of maintenance compared to other heat exchangers. However, when plate heat exchanger is used for a long time, leak can occur due to inner crack. Therefore, it is important to understand the inner flow characteristics in plate heat exchangers. In this study, the inner flow characteristics and flow rate of plate heat exchanger were evaluated using various flow directions, pin-hole sizes, and Reynolds numbers. In downflow, initially most water flowed to the opposite of the inlet due to distribution region. Then it gradually had a uniform distribution due to chevron configuration. In upflow, it had a uniform flow consistently due to the dominant gravity effect. As the Reynolds number increased, the leak rate was decreased due to the inertia effect regardless of the flow direction.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.159-167
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• 2019

In this paper the potential of the principal component analysis(PCA) technique for the application of detecting leaks in water pipe networks was evaluated. For this purpose the PCA was conducted to evaluate the relevance of the calculated outliers of a PCA model utilizing the recorded pipe flows and the recorded pipe leak incidents of a case study water distribution system. The PCA technique was enhanced by applying the computational algorithms developed in this study which were designed to extract a partial set of flow data from the original 24 hour flow data so that the effective outlier detection rate was maximized. The relevance of the calculated outliers of a PCA model and the recorded pipe leak incidents was analyzed. The developed algorithm may be applied in determining further leak detection field work for water distribution blocks that have more than 70% of the effective outlier detection rate. However, the analysis suggested that further development on the algorithm is needed to enhance the applicability of the PCA in detecting leaks by considering series of leak reports happening in a relatively short period.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.403-415
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• 1998

The CANDU 6 reactor assembly consists of an array of 380 pressure tubes, which are installed horizontally in a large cylindrical vessel, the Calandria, containing the low pressure heavy water moderator. The pressure tube is located inside the calandria tube and the annulus between these tubes, which forms a closed loop with $CO_2$ gas recirculating, is called the Annulus Gas System(AGS). It is designed to give an alarm to the operator even for a small pressure tube leak by a very sensitive dew point meter so that he can take a preventive action for the pressure tube rupture incident. To judge whether the operator action time is enough or not in the design of Wolsong 2,3 & 4, the Leak Before Break(LBB) assessment is required for the analysis of the pressure tube failure accident. In order to provide the required data for the LBB assessment of Wolsong Units 2, 3, 4, a series of leak detection capability tests was performed by injecting controlled rates of heavy water vapour. The data of increased dew point and rates of rise were measured to determine the alarm set point for the dew point rate of rise of Wolsong Unit 2. It was found that the response of the dew point depends on the moisture injection rate, $CO_2$ gas flow rate and the leak location. The test showed that CANDU 6 AGS can detect the very small leaks less than few g/hr and dew point rate of rise alarm can be the most reliable alarm signal to warn the operator. Considering the present results, the first response time of dew point to the AGS $CO_2$ flow rate is approximated.