• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.415-418
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• 2011

Thermal fatigue is one of the life-limiting damage mechanisms in the nuclear power plant conditions. The turbulent mixing of fluids of different temperatures induces rapid temperature changes to the pipe wall. The successive thermal transients cause varying cyclic thermal stresses. These cyclic thermal stresses cause fatigue crack nucleation and growth similar to the cyclic mechanical stresses. The aim of this study was to fulfil the need by developing an real crack manufacturing method, which would produce realistic cracks. The test material was austenitic STS 304, which is used as pipelines in the reactor coolant system of a nuclear power plants. In order to fabricate thermal fatigue crack similar to realistic crack, successive thermal transients were applied to the specimen. Thermal transient cycles were combined with heating (60sec) and cooling cycle (30sec). And, In order to identify ultrasonic characteristic, it was performed the ultrasonic reflection measuring method for the fabricated specimen. From the results of ultrasonic reflection measuring testing, it was conformed that A-scan results(average 83% of real crack depth) for the TFC reference specimen was more enhanced NDT reliability than results(average 38% of real crack depth) for the EDM notch reference specimen.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.356-364
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• 2017

In this study, submerged arc cladded Fe-Cr-Ni-Mo-CuWNbV-C stainless steels containing various Cr contents between 11.2 wt.% and 16.7 wt.% were prepared with fixed C content at about 0.14 wt.%. Using these alloys, changes in microstructure, tensile property, and thermal fatigue property were investigated. Phase fraction of delta-ferrite was increased gradually with increasing Cr content. However, tensile strength, hardness, and thermal fatigue resistance appeared to be decreased. When the microstructure of delta-ferrite was observed, it was revealed that the mesh structure retained up to about 15% Cr content. Although thermal fatigue resistance was almost the same for Cr contents between 11.0 and 14.5 wt.%, it was significantly decreased at higher Cr contents. This was evident from mean value of crack lengths of 10 largest ones. Evaluation of thermal fatigue resistance on alloys with various Cr contents revealed the following important results. First, the reproducibility of ranking test was excellent regardless of the number of cycles. Second, thermal fatigue resistance was increased in proportion to true tensile fracture strength values of overlay materials. Finally, the number of thermal fatigue cracks per unit length was increased with increasing true tensile fracture strength.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.43-49
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• 2008

Fatigue cracks due to thermal stratification or corrosion in pipelines of nuclear power plants can cause serious problems on reactor cooling system. Therefore, the development of an integrated technology including fabrication of standard specimens and their practical usage is needed to enhance the reliability of nondestructive testing. The test material was austenitic STS 304, which is used as pipelines in the Reactor Coolant System of a nuclear power plants. The best condition for fabrication of thermal fatigue cracks at the notch plate was selected using the thermal stress analysis of ANSYS. The specimen was installed from the tensile tester and underwent continuos tension loads of 51,000N. Then, after the specimen was heated to $450^{\circ}C$ for 1 minute using HF induction heater, it was cooled to $20^{\circ}C$ in 1 minute using a mixture of dry ice and water. The initial crack was generated at 17,000 cycles, 560 hours later (1cycle/2min.) and the depth of the thermal fatigue crack reached about 40% of the thickness of the specimen at 22,000 cycles. As a results of optical microscope and SEM analysis, it is confirmed that fabricated thermal fatigue cracks have the same characteristics as real fatigue cracks in nuclear power plants. The crack shape and size were identified.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.73-79
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• 2003

The present study was aimed at analysing the damage of a used gas turbine bucket after 39,500h of total service. Microstructures and cracks of service-induced bucket were observed. The crack might have initiated from the coating in the bucket surface by thermal fatigue and propagated into the GTD111 base metal. Maximum depth of penetration was 2.7 mm(full penetration) at the leading edge. Crack contains a lot of Cr-,Ti-,Al-oxide which will prohibit filling and wetting of insert metal. Depth and propagation direction of crack were accorded with centrifugal force and temperature distribution in turbine bucket. Present result will provide basic data for repair bonding process.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.27 no.12
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• pp.99-106
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• 2010

Gas turbines operation for power generation increased rapidly since 1990 due to the high efficiency in combined cycle, relatively low construction cost and low emission. But the operation and maintenance cost for gas turbine is high because the expensive superalloy hot gas path parts should be repaired and replaced periodically This study analyzed the initiation and propagation of the crack at the gas turbine blades which are coated with MCrAIY as a bond coat and TBC as a top coat. The sample blades had been serviced at the actual gas turbines for power generation. Total 7 sets of blades were analyzed and they have different EOH(equivalent operation hour). Blades were sectioned and the cracking distribution were measured and analyzed utilizing SEM(scanning electron microscope) and optical microscope. The blades which had 52,000 EOH of operation had cracks at the substrate and the maximum depth was 0.2 mm. Most of the cracks initiated at the boundary layer between TBC and bond coat and propagated down to the bond coat. Once bond coat is cracked, the base metal is exposed to the oxidation condition and undergoes notch effect. Under this environment, the crack branched at the inter-diffusion layer and propagated to the substrate. Critical cracks affecting the blade life were analyzed as those on suction side and platform.