• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.239-245
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• 2007

A torsional guided wave mode in a tubular structure has many advantages in obtaining a higher sensitivity and lower attenuation for a defect, because it shows no dispersion characteristics and no radial displacement for a tubular structure. Many attempts have been made to excite and receive torsional guided waves by conventional piezoelectric transducers, but only a few examples are used during a practical field inspection. In this study, an array of electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs) were for an excitation and reception of the torsional guided waves in a pipe was designed and fabricated. The signal patterns were analyzed based on various beam path length. The feasibility of detecting the defects was investigated through a series of experiments with artificial notches on a pipe.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.159-163
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• 2022

A linearly moving structure in the area where the friction force is dominant - such as ducts filled with grease in the nuclear power plant - experiences increase in friction since the contact surface gets larger as the structure proceeds. To solve this problem is critical for the pipe inspection robot to investigate further area and this makes the system more energy-efficient. In this paper, we propose a passively growing sheath that can be added to linearly moving structures using zipper mechanism. The mechanism enables the linearly moving structures to maintain rolling contact condition against external environment, which provides substantial reduction in kinetic friction. To analyze the effect of the mechanism's head shape, we establish a physical model and compare to the experimental results. Finally, we have shown that the passively growing sheath can be successfully applied to the pipe inspection robot for the nuclear power plant.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.37-41
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• 2020

The Nuclear containment building is a main safety-related structure that performs shielding and conservation functions to prevent highly radioactive materials from leakage to the outside environment in the case of various environmental conditions and postulated accidents. The containment building contains a reactor, steam generator, pressurizer, tank, reactor coolant system, auxiliary system and engineering safety system, and is designed so that highly radioactive materials above the limits specified in 10 CFR 100 do not escape to the outside environment in the case of LOCA(Loss of Coolant Accident) for instance. The containment metal liner plate(CLP) is a carbon steel plate with a nominal plate thickness of 6 mm, which functions as a mold for the wall and dome of the containment building when concrete is filled, fulfills airtightness to prevent leakage of seriously radioactive materials. In recent years, backside corrosion was found on the liner plate in some domestic nuclear power plants. The main cause of backside corrosion was unfilled concrete. In this paper, an inspection technique of assessing filling suitability for CLP backside concrete is developed. Results show that the validity of inspection technique for CLP backside concrete using vibration sensor is successfully verified.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.218-224
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• 2012

Liquid droplet impingement erosion (LDIE) known to be generated in aircraft and turbine blades is recently appeared in nuclear piping. UT thickness measurements with both A-scan and B-scan UT inspection equipments were performed for a component estimated as susceptible to LDIE in feedwater heater vent system. The thickness data measured with B-Scan equipment were compared with those of A-Scan. Thermal hydraulic analysis based on ANSYS FLUENT code was performed to analyze the behavior of liquid droplets inside piping. The wall thinning rate and residual lifetime based on both existing Sanchez-Caldera equation and measuring data were also calculated to identify the applicability of the existing equation to the LDIE management of nuclear piping. Because Sanchez-Caldera equation do not consider the feature of magnetite formed inside piping, droplet size, colliding frequency, the development of new evaluation method urgently needs to manage the pipe wall thinning caused by LDIE.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.37-42
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• 2010

The stay cylinder weld at the steam generator of Korean Standard Nuclear Power Plants is safety class I component and is subjected to be inspected by the volumetric examination such as ultrasonic method. As accessibility of this area is limited due to the narrow space and high radiation, the existing manual inspection method involves various difficulties. Moreover operators may be exposed to internal contamination by contaminated dust during the surface buffing process to improve the inspection reliability of this area. Recently the new automatic inspection system for stay cylinder welds has been developed. The inspection system basically consists of a driving assembly, data acquisition device and signal processing units. The driving assembly is classified by 1) the scanner for inspecting and buffing the weld, 2) pillars for guiding the scanner and 3) the base frame for loading and supporting pillars. The scanner has 4 sensor modules to inspect in 4 refracted angles and 4 incident directions. These components can be inserted into the skirt of the stay cylinder through the manway hole and assembled easily by one-touch in the skirt. Data acquisition device and signal processing units developed in previous works are also newly upgraded for better processing of data analysis and evaluation. The system has been successfully demonstrated not only in the mock-up but also in the field. In this paper, newly developed inspection system for the stay cylinder weld of the steam generator is introduced and their field applications are discussed.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.73-84
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• 2011

This study represents construction progress management model based on quality inspection process in addition to cost-schedule integration. Quality inspection process cycle, resource estimate as progress measurement parameter, hierarchical structure of schedule, and inspection lots linking quality inspection to resource estimate are addressed as four main information areas. The authors established several process models to give a structure and correlations among information elements on each of these areas. Applying the process models proposed, an information system was implemented and utilized for nuclear power plant construction. It reveals that the system achieves accurate and objective progress information in near real time with significantly reduced time and effort as well as administrative efficiencies from making quality inspection process online.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1996.10a
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• pp.546-550
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• 1996

The personal-computer software program named SAMS(Structural Aging Management System) was developed for the concrete structure of NPP(Nuclear Power Plant). SAMS is constituted of three part, detabase system containing various inspection data, operation program for standard input/output of the inspection data, and application program for efficient operation of database system. Using the SAMS, the field engineers can easily acquire the information about the various inspection data, repair and accidental histories of NPP structures. SAMS will contribute to the effcient maintenance of NPP structures.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1996.11a
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• pp.165-170
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• 1996

In order that a mobile robot executes the real tasks such as inspection and maintenance in nuclear facility efficiently, the coordination between the mobile platform and the manipulator is essentially required In this paper, a new motion control method for a mobile robot to execute the tasks in nuclear facility efficiently is proposed. A series of simulations are performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2005.07b
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• pp.1008-1010
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• 2005

In the examination of steam generator(SG) tube in nuclear power plant, eddy current testing probes play an important role in detecting the defects. Bobbin probe and MRPC probe is usually used for the inspection of SG tube. Bobbin probe is good at high speed inspection, but ability of detection of circumferential defect is very weak. On the contrary MRPC probe, which moves for inspection in the direction of axial and circumferential simultaneously, has very slow inspection speed, but it has excellent detection capability for small cracks, which is hardly detected by bobbin probe. In this paper, for the accurate analysis of experimental ECT signals, construction of MRPC probe signals database according to the variation of defect size is the main purpose. Using 3-D finite element method, ECT signals are analyzed, and signals analysis add according to frequency ingredient. The results, which are analysis and characteristics ion of electromagnetism simulation signals, is databased.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.586-592
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• 2016

The magnetic-jack type CRDM withdraws or inserts a control rod assembly from/to the reactor core to control the core reactivity. The CRDM housings form not only the path of the electromagnetic field but also the pressure boundary of a nuclear reactor, and a periodic in-service inspection should be carried out if there are welded or flange jointed parts on the pressure boundary. The in-service inspection is a time-consuming process during the reactor refueling, and moreover it is difficult to perform the inspection over the reactor head. A magnetic motor housing is applied for the current SMART CRDM and has several welding joints, however a nonmagnetic motor housing with fewer or no welding joints may improve the operational efficiency of the nuclear reactor by avoiding or simplifying the in-service inspection process. Prior to the development, the magnetic field transfer efficiency of the nonmagnetic housing was required to be assessed. It was verified and optimized by the electromagnetic analysis of the lifting force estimation. Magnetic flux rings were adopted to improve the efficiency. In this paper, the design and optimization process of a nonmagnetic motor housing with the magnetic flux rings for the SMART CRDM are introduced and the analyses results are discussed.