• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.742-749
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• 2003

Failure of a pipeline due to local wall thinning is getting more attention in the nuclear power plant industry. Although guidelines such as ANSI/ASME B31G and ASME Code Case N597 are still useful fer assessing the integrity of a wall thinned pipeline, there are some limitations in these guidelines. For instance, these guidelines consider only pressure loading and thus neglect bending loading. However, most Pipelines in nuclear power plants are subjected to internal pressure and bending moment due to dead-weight loads and seismic loads. Therefore, an assessment procedure for locally wall thinned pipeline subjected to combined loading is needed. In this paper, three-dimensional finite element(FE) analyses were performed to simulate full-scale pipe tests conducted for various shapes of wall thinned area under internal pressure and bending moment. Maximum moments based on true ultimate stress(${\alpha}$$\sub$u,t/) were obtained from FE results to predict the failure of the pipe. These results were compared with test results, which showed good agreement. Additional finite element analyses were performed to investigate the effect of key parameters, such as wall thinned depth, wall thinned angle and wall thinned length, on maximum moment. Also, the effect of internal pressure on maximum moment was investigated. Change of internal pressure did not show significant effect on the maximum moment.

• 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.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.1-9
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• 2020

Large-scale industrial facility structures continue to deteriorate due to the effects of operating and environmental conditions. The problems of these industrial facilities are potentially causing economic losses, environmental pollution, casualties, and national losses. Accordingly, in order to prevent disaster accidents of large structures in advance, the necessity of diagnosing structures using non-destructive inspection techniques is being highlighted. The defect occurrence, location and defect type of the structure are important parameters for predicting the remaining life of the structure, so continuous defect observation is very important. Recently, many researchers have been actively researching real-time monitoring technology to solve these problems. Structure Health Monitoring Inspection is a technology that can identify and respond to the occurrence of defects in real time, but there is a limit to check the degree of defects and the direction of growth of defects. In order to compensate for the shortcomings of these technologies, the importance of defect imaging techniques is emerging, and in order to find defects in large structures, a method of inspecting a wide range using guided ultrasonic is effective. The work presented here introduces a calculation for the shape factor for evaluation of the damaged area, as well as a variable β parameter technique to correct a damaged shape. Also, we perform research in modeling simulation and an experiment for comparison with a suggested inspection method and verify its validity. The curved structure image obtained by the advanced RAPID algorithm showed a good match between the defect area and the shape.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.18-27
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• 2021

This study aims to develop an improved evaluation technology for assessing CANDU-6 safety. For this purpose, the multiple steam generator tube rupture (mSGTR) followed by an unmitigated station blackout (SBO) in a CANDU-6 plant was selected as a hypothetical event scenario and the analysis model to evaluate the plant responses was envisioned into the MARS-KS input model. The model includes logic models for controlling the pressure and inventory of the primary heat transport system (PHTS) decreasing due to the u-tubes' rupture, as well as the main features of PHTS with a simplified model for the horizontal fuel channels, the secondary heat transport system including the shell side of steam generators, feedwater and main steam line, and moderator system. A steady state condition was successfully achieved to confirm the stable convergence of the key parameters. Until the turbine trip, the fuel channels were adequately cooled by forced circulation of coolant and supply of main feedwater. However, due to the continuous reduction of PHTS pressure and inventory, the reactor and turbine were shut down and the thermal-hydraulic behaviors between intact and broken loops got asymmetric. Furthermore, as the conditions of low-flow coolant and high void fraction in the broken loop persisted, leading to degradation of decay heat removal, it was evaluated that the peak cladding temperature (PCT) exceeded the limit criteria for ensuring nuclear fuel integrity. This study is expected to provide the technical bases to the accident management strategy for transient conditions with multiple events.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.37-42
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• 2022

An influence analysis on multiple steam generator tube rupture (mSGTR) followed by an unmitigated station blackout is performed to compare the plant responses according to the number of ruptured u-tubes under the assumption of a total of 10 ruptured u-tubes. In all calculation cases, the transient behaviour of major thermal-hydraulic parameters, such as the discharge flow rate through the ruptured u-tubes, reactor header pressure, and void fraction in the fuel channels is found to be overall similar to that of the base case having a single SG with 10 u-tubes ruptured. Additionally, as the conditions of low-flow coolant with high void fraction in the broken loop continued, causing the degradation of decay heat removal, the peak cladding temperature (PCT) would be expected to exceed the limit criteria for ensuring nuclear fuel integrity. However, despite the same total number of ruptured u-tubes, because of the different connection configuration between the SG and pressurizer, a difference is foud in time between the pressurizer low-level signal and reactor header low-pressure signal, affecting the time to trip the reactor and to reach the PCT limit. The present study is expected to provide the technical basis for the accident management strategy for mSGTR transient conditions of CANDU-6 plants.

• International Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.10-20
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• 2004

Experiments have been conducted in order to make comparisons of characteristics of a R410a cycle with a R22 cycle in terms of cooling capacity and coefficient of performance (COP). The parameters examined in the present work include air flow rate, indoor and outdoor air temperatures, and indoor relative humidity. These two refrigeration cycles constructed for this study share all components except compressor, accumulator, oil separator, and piping. The measurements were made using a psychrometric calorimeter. The experimental results show that the R410A cycle has several advantages for indoor units while the R22 cycle yields better performance for outdoor units.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.135-140
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• 2016

Piping and equipment are degraded by flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC) in nuclear power plants. FAC causes numerous problems and nuclear utilities maintain programs to control FAC. The key parameters influencing FAC are hydrodynamic conditions, water chemistry, and effect of materials. Recently, a nuclear utility has planned slight power uprates in Korea. Operating conditions need to be changed in the secondary system according to power uprates. This study analyzed the effect of wall-thinning caused by power uprates. The change of operation data in the secondary cycle is reviewed, and wall-thinning rates are analyzed in the main lines. As a result, two phase (mixture of water and steam) lines have a greater impact than a water line under power uprate conditions. Also, the quality of steam is the most important factor for FAC in two phase lines.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.1460-1468
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• 1995

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the material properties of SA106 Gr. C carbon steel and its associated weld manufactured for main steam system of Yonggwang 3,4 nuclear generating stations. A total of 43 tensile and 35 fracture toughness tests were performed and the effects of various parameters such as pipe size, crack plane orientation, test temperature, welding on material properties were discussed. Test results show that the effects of crack plane orientation, test temperature, and welding on fracture toughness were significant while the effects of pipe size, specimen orientation and test temperature on tensile properties were negligible. Especially the dependence of J-R curves on the crack plane orientation appears to be the characteristics of carbon steel.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.103-105
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• 2003

Currently, duplex and superduplex stainless steels are widely used for piping system in offshore unit because of its excellent combination of strength and corrosion resistance properties. Also, the usage of duplex and superduplex stainless steel is steadily increasing with getting into step with development of offshore industries. In spite of excellent merits in mechanical and chemical properties of base materials, sometimes stringent requirements in welding procedure qualification and fabrication of duplex class material have regulated not only the application of various high-efficiency welding processes but also applicable welding parameters. This study is focused on hardness requirement which is known as one of the most stringent factor in duplex class material welding and this study aims to evaluate the effects of cutting and welding methodology on hardness values of duplex and superduplex stainless steel weldments.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.680-688
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• 1996

In this paper, the unsteady state calculational model is proposed for the thermal stratification analysis in the feedwater line of the PWR plant. By defining dimensionless parameters in the two-dimensional polar coordinate system and applying SIMPLE algorithm, the temperature and flow profiles due to the thermal stratification are obtained. Base on the fact that the most significant condition occurs when the fluid temperature difference between the piping ends reaches as high as 166.deg. C, the present result shows that max. Dimensionless temperature difference of 0.6 (about l00.deg. C) obtained between hot and cold sections of pipe wall at dimensionless time 47.0.