• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.647-657
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• 2012

Although nuclear power plant piping system is designed conforming to design specifications, the piping systems are deteriorated with increase in service life. In this study, monotonic and cyclic loading tests were carried out on TP316 stainless steel pipe specimens, and the effect of local wall thinning and cracking on failure behavior was investigated. In the tests, 0%, 35% and 75% wall thinning and cracking of initial thickness were artificially introduced to inside elbow and straight pipe specimens, and internal pressures of 20MPa were applied to simulate real operation condition. From the test results, the effect of local wall thinning and cracking on failure mode, ultimate load, number of cycle and strain energy was presented, and maximum bending moment was compared with allowable bending moment calculated by ASME code.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.46-52
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• 2019

This work proposes a noncontact ultrasonic transducer for detecting wall-thinning of containment liner plates of nuclear power plants by measuring their thickness without physical contact. Because the containment liner plate is designed to prevent atmospheric leakage of radioactive substances under severe nuclear accident, its wall-thinning inspection is important for safety of nuclear power plants. Wall-thinning investigation of containment liner plates have been carried out by measuring their thickness with contact-type ultrasonic thickness gauge by inspectors and needs a lot of time and cost. As an alternative, an electromagnetic acoustic transducer measuring precisely thickness of containment liner plates without any physical contact or couplant was suggested in this research. A transducer generating and measuring shear ultrasonic waves in thickness direction was designed and wave field produced by the transducer was analyzed to verify the design. The working performance of the suggested transducer was tested with carbon steel plate specimens with various thicknesses. The test result shows that the proposed transducer can measure thickness of the specimens precisely without any couplant and implies that swift scanning of wall-thinning of containment liner plates will be possible with the proposed transducer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.127.2-127
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• 2001

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.401.1-401
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• 2002

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.35 no.10
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• pp.1105-1110
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• 2011

Flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC) is a well-known phenomenon that may occur in piping and components. Most nuclear power plants have carbon-steel-pipe wall-thinning management programs in place to control FAC. However, various other erosion mechanisms may also occur in carbon-steel piping. The most common forms of erosion encountered (cavitation, flashing, Liquid Droplet Impingement Erosion (LDIE), and Solid Particle Erosion (SPE)), have caused wall thinning, leaks, and ruptures, and have resulted in unplanned shutdowns in utilities. In particular, the damage caused by LDIE is difficult to predict, and there has been no effort to protect piping from erosive damage. This paper presents an evaluation method for LDIE. It also includes the calculation results from prediction models, a review of the experimental results, and a comparison between the UT data in the damaged components and the results of the calculations and experiments.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.30 no.5 s.248
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• pp.533-542
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• 2006

In order to assess the integrity of pipes with local thinning area, the plastic strain as well as the elastic strain at the root of thinned region are required particularly when fluctuating load is applied to the pipe. For estimating elastic-plastic strain at local wall thinning area in a straight pipe under tensile load, an estimation model with idealized fully circumferential constant depth wall thinning area is proposed. Based on the compatibility and equilibrium equations a nonlinear estimation equation, from which local elastic-plastic strain can be determined as a function of pipe/defect geometry, material and the applied strain was derived. Estimation results are compared with those from detailed elastic-plastic finite element analysis, which shows good agreements. Noting that practical wall thinning in nuclear piping has not only a circular shape but also a finite circumferential length, the proposed solution for the ideal geometry is extended based on two-dimensional and three-dimensional numerical analysis of pipes with circular wall thinning.

• 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.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.79-84
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• 2013

In general, pipelines at nuclear power plants are affected by various types of degradation mechanisms and may be ruptured after gradually thinning. FAC (Flow-Accelerated Corrosion) is typical aging mechanism affecting the secondary side piping system. In Korea nuclear power plants, CHECWORKS program have been used for management of wall thinning damages. However, sometimes, CHECWORKS program shows wrong results at the stage of NFA (Network Flow Analysis) in case of complex pipelines. This paper describes the calculation results of pressure drop in a complex pipeline and single line by using the CHECWORKS program and the analysis results are compared with those of engineering calculation results including errors between them.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.38-44
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• 2006

Failure assessment of steam generator tube are very important for the integrity of energy plants. In pipes of energy plants, sometimes, the local wall thinning may result from severe erosion-corrosion damage. Recently, the effects of local wall thinning on fracture strength and fracture behavior of piping system have been well studied. In this paper, the elasto-plastic analysis is performed by FE code ANSIS on steam generator tube with wall thinning. We evaluated the failure mode, fracture strength and fracture behavior from FE analysis. It was possible to predict the crack initiation point by estimating true fracture ductility under multi-axial stress conditions at the center of the thinned area.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.66-72
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• 2002

Fracture behaviors of pipes with local wall thinning are very important for the integrity of nuclear power plant. However, effects of local wall thinning on strength and fracture behaviors of piping system were not well studied. Acoustic emission(AE) has been widely used in various fields because of its extreme sensitivity, dynamic detection ability and location of growing defects. In this study, we investigated failure modes of locally wall thinned pipes and AE signals by bending test. From test results, we could be divided four types of failure modes of ovalization, crack initiation after ovalization, local buckling and crack initiation after local buckling. And fracture behaviors such as elastic region, yielding region, plastic deformation region and crack progress region could be evaluated by AE counts, accumulative counts and time-frequency analysis during bending test. The result of the frequency range is expected to be basic data that can inspect plants in real-time.