• 한국압력기기공학회 논문집
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• 제7권1호
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• pp.17-26
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• 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.

• 한국원자력학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국원자력학회 1996년도 춘계학술발표회논문집(1)
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• pp.291-295
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• 1996

In CANDU reactor, each pressure tubes contain twelve fuel bundles and provide the inlet and outlet for the primary coolant. If a leak develops in the pressure tube, it is detected by Annulus Gas System which contains circulating dry $CO_2$ gas. Since the leaks caused by the flaws are resulted in pressure tube break, establishment of flaw assessment method is very significant in view of the fracture mechanics. In this paper, various criteria for assessing the flaws are presented to prevent the tube rupture and ensure the integrity of reactor operating.

• 대한기계학회논문집
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• 제19권3호
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• pp.731-740
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• 1995

The objective of this paper is to develop defect assessment technology for integrity evaluation of CANDU pressure tubes. In fracture mechanics analysis, three-dimensional and two-dimensional (line-spring model) finite element analyses were performed to obtain the stress intensity factor for axial and circumferential surface cracks. In leak before break (LBB) analysis, heat transfer analyses for through-wall cracks were performed by considering the cooling effect and the LBB application time was computed. It was shown that the analytical results obtained in this study provide less-conservative but accurate solution for defect assessment of CANDU pressure tubes.

• 대한기계학회논문집A
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• 제31권2호
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• pp.277-284
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• 2007

The steam generator in a nuclear power plant is a large heat exchanger that uses heat from a reactor to generate steam to drive the turbine generator. Rupture of a steam generator tube can result in release of fission products to environment outside. Therefore, an accurate integrity assessment of the steam generator tubes with cracks is of great importance for maintaining the safety of a nuclear power plant. The steam generator tubes are supported at regular intervals by support plates and rotations of the tubes are restrained. Although it has been reported that the limit load for a circumferential crack is significantly affected by boundary condition of the tube, existing limit load solutions do not consider the restraining effect of support plate correctly. In addition, there are no limit load solutions for circumferential cracks in U-bend region with the effect of the support plate. This paper provides detailed limit load solutions for circumferential cracks in top of tube sheet and the U-bend regions of the steam generator tube with the actual boundary conditions to simulate the restraining effect of the support plate. Such solutions are developed based on three dimensional finite element analyses. The resulting limit load solutions are given in a polynomial form, and thus can be simply used in practical integrity assessment of the steam generator tubes.

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2001년도 추계학술대회논문집A
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• pp.155-160
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• 2001

This paper describes a probabilistic fracture mechanics (PFM) analysis based on Monte Carlo (MC) simulation. In the analysis of CANDU pressure tube, it is necessary to perform the PFM analyses based on statistical consideration of flaw generation time. A depth and an aspect ratio of initial semi-elliptical surface crack, a fracture toughness value, delayed hydride cracking (DHC) velocity, and flaw generation time are assumed to be probabilistic variables. In all the analyses, degradation of fracture toughness due to neutron irradiation is considered. Also, the failure criteria considered are plastic collapse, unstable fracture and crack penetration. For the crack growth by DHC, the failure probability was evaluated in due consideration of flaw generation time.

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2004년도 춘계학술대회
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• pp.66-71
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• 2004

Estimation of the CANDU pressure tube deflection is important since the deflection may cause significant structural failure due to hydrogen diffusion and blister. However, there is no appropriate engineering model to estimate it exactly. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new analysis method and program to resolve this issue. For development of proper analysis method, a series of finite element analyses has been carried under elastic-creep condition. In addition, for effective estimation of the creep deflection, an analysis program named PC-DAS was developed based on the proposed method. Comparison of simple case study results with corresponding reference ones showed good agreement. Therefore, the proposed method and program can be utilized as one of valuable toolkit for integrity assessment of CANDU pressure tube.

• 대한기계학회논문집A
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• 제26권11호
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• pp.2305-2311
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• 2002

The pressure tube is a major component of the CANDU reactor, which supports nuclear fuel bundle and heavy water coolant. Pressure tubes are installed horizontally inside the reactor and only selected samples are periodically examined during in-service inspection. In this respect, a probabilistic safety assessment method is more appropriate fur the assessment of overall pressure tube safety. The failure behavior of CANDU pressure tubes, however, is governed by delayed hydride cracking which is the major difference from pipings and reactor pressure vessels. Since the delayed hydride cracking has more widely distributed governing parameters, it is impossible to apply a general PFM methodology directly. In this paper, a PFM methodology for the safety assessment of CANDU pressure tubes is introduced by applying Monte Carlo simulation in determining failure probability Initial hydrogen concentration, flaw shape and depth, axial and radial crack growth rate and fracture toughness were considered as probabilistic variables. Parametric study has been done under the base of pressure tube dimension and hydride precipitation temperature in calculating failure probability. Unstable fracture and plastic collapse are used for the failure assessment. The estimated failure probability showed about three-order difference with changing dimensions of pressure tube.

• 대한기계학회논문집A
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• 제26권4호
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• pp.653-659
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• 2002

This paper describes a probabilistic fracture mechanics(PFM) analysis based on Monte Carlo(MC) simulation. In the analysis of CANDU pressure tube, the depth and aspect ratio of an initial semi-elliptical surface crack, a fracture toughness value and delayed hydride cracking(DHC) velocity are assumed to be probabilistic variables. As an example, some failure probabilities of piping and CANDU pressure tube are calculated using MC method with the stratified sampling MC technique, taking analysis conditions of normal operations. In the stratified MC simulation, a sampling space of probabilistic variables is divided into a number of small cells. For the verification of analysis results, a comparison study of the PFM analysis using other commercial code is carried out and a good agreement was observed between those results.

• 방사성폐기물학회지
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• 제19권4호
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• pp.491-501
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• 2021

This paper aims to evaluate the mechanical integrity for Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) cladding under lateral loads during transportation. The evaluation process requires a conservative consideration of the degradation conditions of SNF cladding, especially the hydride effect, which reduces the ductility of the cladding. The dynamic forces occurring during the drop event are pinch force, axial force and bending moment. Among those forces, axial force and bending moment can induce transverse tearing of cladding. Our assessment of 14 × 14 PWR SNF was performed using finite element analysis considering SNF characteristics. We also considered the probabilistic procedures with a Monte Carlo method and a reliability evaluation. The evaluation results revealed that there was no probability of damage under normal conditions, and that under accident conditions the probability was small for transverse failure mode.

• 동력기계공학회지
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• 제10권3호
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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.