• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.7-12
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• 2012

Steam generator tubes are critical boundary of the primary and secondary side in nuclear power plants. Eddy current testing is commonly used as the method of non-destructive testing for the safety and integrity of steam generator tubes in the nuclear power plants. Changes in the geometric shape act as a stress concentration factor likely to cause a defect during the steam generator operation. The mixed-signals with the geometric shape are distorted and attributes that are difficult to detect signals. An example is bending stress due to compression process at a U-bend occurring in the intrados region which has a small radius of curvature. The resulting change in the geometric shape may lead to a dent like occurrences. The dent can cause stress concentration and generates stress corrosion cracks. In this study, the steam generator tubes of nuclear power plant were selected to study for analysis of mixed-signal containing dent and stress corrosion cracks.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.1006-1013
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• 2004

Operating experience of steam generators shows that the tubes are degraded by stress corrosion cracking, fretting wear and so on. These defected tubes could stay in service if it is proved that the tubes have sufficient structural margin to preclude the risk of tube bursting. This paper provides detailed plastic limit pressure solutions for through-wall cracks in the steam generator tubes. These are developed based on three dimensional(3D) finite element analyses assuming elastic-perfectly plastic material behavior. Both axial and circumferential through-wall cracks in free span and in u-bend regions are considered. The resulting limit pressure solutions are given in a polynomial form, and thus can be simply used in practical integrity assessment of the steam generator tubes.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.1-8
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• 2010

Nuclear steam generator tubes have experienced wear degradation at tube support structure. Morphology of wear scar was analyzed by using eddy current signal. A burst test facility for steam generator tubes was established and tubes with 3 types of defects were tested. The burst test results show that the depth of wear scar is the main factor influencing the burst pressure of tubes, meanwhile, both the longitudinal length and the angle also have effect on the burst pressure. Based on test results, the burst pressure equation for wear degradation was proposed.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.7-14
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• 2014

There has been extensive experience associated with the operation of SGs wherein it was believed, based on NDE, that throughwall tube indications were present within the tubesheet. The installation of the SG tubes usually involves the development of a short interference fit, referred to as the tack expansion, at the bottom of the tubesheet. The tack expansion was usually effected by a hard rolling process and thereafter, in most instance, by the expansion of a urethane plug inserted into the tube end and compressed in the axial direction. The rolling process by its very nature is considered to be intensive with regard to metalworking at the inside surface of the tube and would be expected to lead to higher residual surface stresses. Alternate repair criteria(ARC) in the tack expansion area have been developed and applied to nuclear power plants in USA, however domestic nuclear power plants have not applied ARC for tubes in tubeheet area yet. In consideration of the degradation characteristics of tubes in the Steam Generator tubesheet, this paper suggests ARC application for tubes in the steam generator tubesheet of the domestic nuclear power plants in order to assure life time of the steam generator as well as nuclear power plants.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.26-28
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• 2006

When materials such as metal are into the secondary side of steam generator, they, so called foreign objects, may have influences on the integrity of the steam generator tubes. They cause the tube wear due to the relative motion between the tubes and foreign objects and the tube impact due to flow. The best way to avoid the effects is to remove all the foreign objects. However, it is not easy to remove the foreign materials thoroughly due to their condition such as the location. Considering the wear and impact by the foreign materials, KEPRI(Korea Electric Power Research Institute) developed the methodology to evaluate the foreign materials analytically. This methodology was described with a computer program in order to obtain the fast results. The program informs whether the tubes have the structural integrity when the foreign material strikes the tubes. Moreover, this gives us the remaining life of the steam generator tubes. In this paper, the program, which evaluates the effects of the foreign objects in the secondary side of steam generator, is introduced.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.97-100
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• 2009

A new eddy current testing probe was developed to separate the eddy current signal distortion caused by permeability variation clusters and ordinary defects created in steam generator tubes. Signal processing circuits were inserted into the probe to increase the signal-to-noise ratio and allow digital signal transmission. The new probe could measure and separate the magnetic phases created in the steam generator tubes in the operating environment of a nuclear power plant. Furthermore, the new eddy current testing probe can measure the defects in steam generator tubes as rapidly as a bobbin probe with enhanced testing speed and reliability of defect detection.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.30 no.8 s.251
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• pp.993-1000
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• 2006

Operating experience of steam generators has shown that cracks of various morphology frequently occur in the steam generator tubes. These cracked tubes can stay in service if it is proved that the tubes have sufficient safety margin to preclude the risk of burst and leak. Therefore, integrity assessment using exact limit load solutions is very important for safe operation of the steam generators. This paper provides global and local limit load solutions for surface cracks in the steam generator tubes. Such solutions are developed based on three-dimensional (3-D) finite element analyses assuming elastic-perfectly plastic material behavior. For the crack location, both axial and circumferential surface cracks, and for each case, both external and internal cracks are considered. The resulting global and local limit load solutions are given in polynomial forms, and thus can be simply used in practical integrity assessment of the steam generator tubes.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.12-17
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• 2006

A steam generator of nuclear power plant has thousands of thin tubes. These tubes play an important role in maintaining the pressure boundary between the primary and secondary side of nuclear power plant. The steam generator tube is easy to be damaged because of the severe operating conditions such as the high temperature and pressure. Therefore, tremendous efforts are made to assess the structural integrity of the steam generator tubes. The eddy current test is the most popular non-destructive test to assess the integrity of the tubes. However, the eddy current test has the limitation to size the flaw accurately because the eddy current signal behavior depends on the total volume of flaw. This paper shows the possibility that the ultrasonic test method can be applied to detect the flaws in the steam generator tubes and to measure them quantitatively. From the test results, it is expected that if the ultrasonic test is put to practical use in the steam generator tube inspection, the inspection results will be improved.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.203-209
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• 2016

According to the wear detection history for the steam generator tubes in the nuclear power plant, the outer tubes inside the steam generator have more problems on the flow-induced vibration than inner tubes. Many researchers and engineers have used a specified added mass coefficient for a given tube array during the design stage of the steam generator even though the coefficient is not constant for entire tube in cylindrical shell. The aim of this study is to find out the distribution of added mass coefficients for each tube along the radial location. When numbers of tubes inside a cylindrical shell are increased, values of added mass coefficients are also increased. Added mass coefficients at outer tubes are less than those of inner tubes and they are decreased with increasing the gap between the outermost tube and the cylindrical shell. It also turns out when the gap between the outermost tube and the cylindrical shell approaches infinite value, the added mass coefficient converges to an asymptotic value of given tube array in a free fluid field.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.63-68
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• 2013

Some essential components in nuclear power plants are periodically inspected using non-destructive examinations, for example ultrasonic, eddy current and radiographic examinations, in order to determine their integrity. These components include nuclear power plant items such as vessels, containments, piping systems, pumps, valves, tubes and core support structure. Steam generator tubes have an important safety role because they constitute one of the primary barriers between the radioactive and non-radioactive sides of the nuclear power plant. There is potential that if a tube bursts while a plant is operating, radioactivity from the primary coolant system could escape directly to the atmosphere. Therefore, in-service inspections are critical in maintaining steam generator tube integrity. In general, the eddy current testing is widely used for the inspection of steam generator tubes due to its high inspection speed and flaw detectability on non-magnetic tubes. However, it is not easy to analyze correctly eddy current signals because they are influenced by many factors. Therefore, the performance of eddy current data analysts for steam generator tubing should be demonstrated comprehensively. In Korea, the performance of steam generator tubing analysts has been demonstrated using the Qualified Data Analyst program. This paper describes the performance demonstration program for steam generator tubing analysts and its implementation results in Korea. The pass rate of domestic analysts for this program was 71.4%.