• 제목/요약/키워드: Nuclear integrity

검색결과 772건 처리시간 0.027초

Smart support system for diagnosing severe accidents in nuclear power plants

  • Yoo, Kwae Hwan;Back, Ju Hyun;Na, Man Gyun;Hur, Seop;Kim, Hyeonmin
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
    • /
    • 제50권4호
    • /
    • pp.562-569
    • /
    • 2018
  • Recently, human errors have very rarely occurred during power generation at nuclear power plants. For this reason, many countries are conducting research on smart support systems of nuclear power plants. Smart support systems can help with operator decisions in severe accident occurrences. In this study, a smart support system was developed by integrating accident prediction functions from previous research and enhancing their prediction capability. Through this system, operators can predict accident scenarios, accident locations, and accident information in advance. In addition, it is possible to decide on the integrity of instruments and predict the life of instruments. The data were obtained using Modular Accident Analysis Program code to simulate severe accident scenarios for the Optimized Power Reactor 1000. The prediction of the accident scenario, accident location, and accident information was conducted using artificial intelligence methods.

CANDU형 원전 압력관에 존재하는 축방향 균열의 응력확대계수 (Stress Intensity Factors for Axial Cracks in CANDU Reactor Pressure Tubes)

  • 이국희;오영진;박흥배;정한섭;정하주;김윤재
    • 한국압력기기공학회 논문집
    • /
    • 제7권1호
    • /
    • pp.17-26
    • /
    • 2011
  • CANDU reactor core is composed a few hundreds pressure tubes, which support and locate the nuclear fuels in the reactor. Each pressure tube provides pressure boundary and flow path of primary heat transport system in the core region. In order to guarantee the structural integrity of pressure tube flaws which can be found by in-service inspection, crack growth and fracture initiation assessment have to be performed. Stress intensity factors are important and basic information for structural integrity assessment of planar and laminar flaws (e. g. crack). This paper reviews and confirms the stress intensity factor of axial crack, proposed in CSA N285.8-05, which is an fitness-for-service evaluation code for pressure tubes in CANDU nuclear reactors. The stress intensity factors in CSA N285.8-05 were compared with stress intensity factors calculated by three methods (finite element results, API 579-1/ASME FFS-1 2007 Fitness-For-Service and ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code Section XI). The effects of Poisson's ratio and anisotropic elastic modulus on stress intensity factors were also discussed.

DETERMINISTIC EVALUATION OF DELAYED HYDRIDE CRACKING BEHAVIORS IN PHWR PRESSURE TUBES

  • Oh, Young-Jin;Chang, Yoon-Suk
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
    • /
    • 제45권2호
    • /
    • pp.265-276
    • /
    • 2013
  • Pressure tubes made of Zr-2.5 wt% Nb alloy are important components consisting reactor coolant pressure boundary of a pressurized heavy water reactor, in which unanticipated through-wall cracks and rupture may occur due to a delayed hydride cracking (DHC). The Canadian Standards Association has provided deterministic and probabilistic structural integrity evaluation procedures to protect pressure tubes against DHC. However, intuitive understanding and subsequent assessment of flaw behaviors are still insufficient due to complex degradation mechanisms and diverse influential parameters of DHC compared with those of stress corrosion cracking and fatigue crack growth phenomena. In the present study, a deterministic flaw assessment program was developed and applied for systematic integrity assessment of the pressure tubes. Based on the examination results dealing with effects of flaw shapes, pressure tube dimensional changes, hydrogen concentrations of pressure tubes and plant operation scenarios, a simple and rough method for effective cooldown operation was proposed to minimize DHC risks. The developed deterministic assessment program for pressure tubes can be used to derive further technical bases for probabilistic damage frequency assessment.

Safety Assessment of a Metal Cask under Aircraft Engine Crash

  • Lee, Sanghoon;Choi, Woo-Seok;Seo, Ki-Seog
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
    • /
    • 제48권2호
    • /
    • pp.505-517
    • /
    • 2016
  • The structural integrity of a dual-purpose metal cask currently under development by the Korea Radioactive Waste Agency (KORAD) was evaluated, through numerical simulations and a model test, under high-speed missile impact reflecting targeted aircraft crash conditions. The impact conditions were carefully chosen through a survey on accident cases and recommendations from literature. In the impact scenario, a missile flying horizontally hits the top side of the cask, which is freestanding on a concrete pad, with a velocity of 150 m/s. A simplified missile simulating a commercial aircraft engine was designed from an impact loade-time function available in literature. In the analyses, the dynamic behavior of the metal cask and the integrity of the containment boundary were assessed. The simulation results were compared with the test results for a 1:3 scale model. Although the dynamic behavior of the cask in the model test did not match exactly with the prediction from the numerical simulation, other structural responses, such as the acceleration and strain history during the impact, showed very good agreement. Moreover, the containment function of the cask survived the missile impact as expected from the numerical simulation. Thus, the procedure and methodology adopted in the structural numerical analyses were successfully validated.

Constraint-corrected fracture mechanics analysis of nozzle crotch corners in pressurized water reactors

  • Kim, Jong-Sung;Seo, Jun-Min;Kang, Ju-Yeon;Jang, Youn-Young;Lee, Yun-Joo;Kim, Kyu-Wan
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
    • /
    • 제54권5호
    • /
    • pp.1726-1746
    • /
    • 2022
  • This paper presents fracture mechanics analysis results for various cracks located at pressurized water reactor pressure vessel nozzle crotch corners taking into consideration constraint effect. Technical documents such as the ASME B&PV Code, Sec.XI were reviewed and then a fracture mechanics analysis procedure was proposed for structural integrity assessment of various nozzle crotch corner cracks under normal operation conditions considering the constraint effect. Linear elastic fracture mechanics analysis was performed by conducting finite element analysis with the proposed analysis procedure. Based on the evaluation results, elastic-plastic fracture mechanics analysis taking into account the constraint effect was performed only for the axial surface crack of the reactor pressure vessel outlet nozzle with cladding. The fracture mechanics analysis result shows that only the axial surface crack in the reactor pressure vessel outlet nozzle has the stress intensity factor exceeding the low bound of upper-shelf fracture toughness irrespectively of considering the constraint effect. It is confirmed that the J-integral for the axial crack of the outlet nozzle does not exceed the ductile crack initiation toughness. Hence, it can be ensured that the structural integrity of all the cracks is maintained during the normal operation.