• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.16 no.9 s.114
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• pp.904-911
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• 2006

A modified energy method for the fretting wear of the steam generator tube is proposed to calculate the wear-out depth between the nuclear steam generator tube and its support. Estimation of fretting-wear damage typically requires a non-linear dynamic analysis with the information of the gap velocity and the flow density around the tube. This analysis is very complex and time consuming. The basic concept of the energy method is that the volume wear rate due to the fretting-wear phenomena Is related to work rate which is time rate of the product of normal contact force and sliding distance. The wearing motion is due to dynamic interaction between vibrating tube and its support structure, such as tube support plate and anti-vibration bar. It can be assumed that the absorbed work rate would come from turbulent flow energy around the vibrating tube. This study also numerically obtains the wear-out depth with various wear topologies. A new dissection method is applied to the multi-span tubes to represent the vibrational mode. It turns out that both the secondary side density and the normal gap velocity are important parameters for the fretting-wear phenomena of the steam generator tube.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.302-307
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• 2004

The major flow-induced vibration mechanisms such as fluid-elastic and turbulence excitation can cause the various types of wear of the steam generator tubes in unclear power plant. It is generally accepted that the tube wear due to vibration is affected by the presence of gap clearance between tube and support plate. Connors showed that the tube wear depth could be estimated by using the relationship between wear volume and sliding distance for contact time. Au-Yang predicted the wear depth by using the nonlinear characteristics of normal work rate to contact time. In this study the effect of gap size on the steam generator tubes wear is analyzed by deriving the wear depth versus normal work rate relationship from these previous results.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.362-367
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• 2008

Tubes in nuclear steam generators are held up by supports because the tubes are long and slender. Fluid flows of high-pressure and high-temperature in the tubes cause oscillating motions between tubes and supports. This is called as FIV (flow induced vibration), which causes fretting wear in contact parts of tube-support. The fretting wear of tube-support can threaten the safety of nuclear power plant. The tube and support materials were Inconel 690 and STS 409. The wear tests were conducted in various environments, which are in water without flow, in flowing water and in flowing water with air. The results showed that the flow of water influenced on the wear-life of tube. The wear-life of tube decreased in water flow as compared with wear-life in stationary water.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.1684-1689
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• 2007

Fretting wear is one of the important degradation mechanisms of steam generator tubes in the nuclear power plants. Especially, impact fretting wear occurred between steam generator tubes and tube support plates or anti-vibration bar. Various tests have been carried out to investigate the wear mechanisms and to report the wear coefficients. Those are fruitful to get insight for the wear damage of steam generator tubes; however, most wear researches have concentrated on sliding wear of the steam generator tubes, which may not represent the wear loading modes in real plants. In the present work, impact fretting tests of steam generator tube were carried out. A wear progression model for impact-fretting wear has been investigated and proposed. The proposed wear progression model of impact-fretting wear is as follows; oxide film breaking step at the initial stage, and layer formation step, energy accumulation step and finally particle torn out step which is followed by layer formation in the stable impact-fretting progress. The wear coefficient according to the work-rate model has been also compared with one between tube and support.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.817-822
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• 2008

Fretting wear is one of the important degradation mechanisms of steam generator tubes in the nuclear power plants. Especially, impact fretting wear occurred between steam generator tubes and tube support plates or anti-vibration bar. Various tests have been carried out to investigate the wear mechanisms and to report the wear coefficients. Those are fruitful to get insight for the wear damage of steam generator tubes; however, most wear researches have concentrated on sliding wear of the steam generator tubes, which may not represent the wear loading modes in real plants. In the present work, impact fretting tests of steam generator tube were carried out. A wear progress model for impact-fretting wear has been investigated and proposed. The proposed wear progress model of impact-fretting wear is as follows; oxide film breaking step at the initial stage, and layer formation step, energy accumulation step and finally particle torn out step which is followed by layer formation in the stable impact-fretting progress. The wear coefficient according to the work-rate model has been also compared with one between tube and support.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2000.06a
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• pp.269-275
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• 2000

The fretting wear characteristics of TiN coated Zircaloy-4 tube were investigated experimentally The fretting wear experiment was performed using TiN coated Zircaloy-4 tube as the fuel rod cladding material and uncoated Zircaloy-4 tube as one of grids. TiN coating is probably one of the most frequently and successfully used PVD coatings for the mitigation of fretting wear. In this study, TiN coating by PVD was employed for improvement of Zircaloy-4 tube fretting characteristics. The fretting tester was designed and manufactured for this experiment. TiN coated Zircaloy-4 tube was used as the moving specimen, uncoated ZircaBoy-4 tube as the stationary one. The number of cycles, slip amplitude and normal load were selected as main factors of fretting wear. The results of this research showed that the wear volume of TiN coated Zircaloy-4 tube increased as number of cycles, normal load and slip amplitude increase but the quantity of volume was lower than the case of uncoated Zircaloy-4 tube pairs.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.1168-1173
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• 2003

When the tube contacted to support and antivibration bar of the steam generator in unclear power plant, the contact area is worn out by their relative displacement. In the study, wear depths of the tube inclined to tube support and antivibration bar are approximately predicted by a method using the contact load and relative displacement. In the case of the inclined contact, the results show wear depths of the steam generator tube predicted by the impact model are larger than those by the sliding model.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.59-62
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• 2001

Flow induced vibration in steam generators has caused dynamic interactions between tubes and contacting materials resulting in fretting wear . Series of experiments have been performed to examine the wear properties of Inconel 690 steam generator tubes in various environmental conditions. For the present study, the test rig was designed to examine the fretting wear and rolling wear properties in high temperature(room temperature - 290。C) water. The test was performed at constant applied load and sliding distance to investigate the effect of test temperature on wear properties of the steam generator tube materials. To investigate the wear mechanism of material, the worn was observed using scanning electron microscopy. The weight loss increase at higher test temperature was caused by the decrease of water viscosity and the mechanical property change of tube material. The mechanical property changes of steam generator tube material, such as decrease of hardness or yield stress in the high temperature tests. From the SEM observation of worn surfaces, the severe wear scars were observed in specimens tested at the higher temperature.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.616-621
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• 2003

Fluid-elastic instability is believed to be a cause of the large-amplitude vibration and resulting rapid wear of heat exchanger tubes when the flow velocity exceeds a critical value. For sub-critical flow velocities, the random turbulence excitation is the main mechanism to be considered in predicting the long-term wear of steam generator tubes. Since flow-induced interactions of the tubes with tube supports in the sub-critical flow velocity can cause a localized tube wear, tube movement in the clearance between the tube and tube support as well as the normal contact force on the tubes by fluid should be maintained as low as possible. A simplified method is used for predicting fretting-wear damage of the double $90^{\circ}$U-bend tubes. The approach employed is based on the straight single-span tube analytical model proposed by Connors, the linear structural dynamic theory of Appendix N-1300 to ASME Section III and the Archard's equation for adhesive wear. Results from the presented method show a similar trend compared with the field data. This method can be utilized to predict the fretting-wear of the double $90^{\circ}$U-bend tubes in steam generators.

• KSTLE International Journal
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• v.10 no.1_2
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• pp.33-36
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• 2009

The nuclear steam generator is composed of a bundle of tubes. The length of these tubes is very long, but their diameter is small. Fluid exists inside of the steam generator and its flow causes vibration, therefore these tubes are supported by anti-vibration bars. The wear damage due to the vibration is known as fretting wear, which should be minimized to ensure the safety of the plants. Research needs to be done about decreasing the amount of fretting wear. Hard coatings have proven to be very effective in reducing the amount of wear. The commercial coatings of TiN and CrN have excellent wear resistance and are used to protect the Inconel tube from fretting wear. The tube-on-flat type tester was used for conducting the fretting wear tests. It was found that the wear amounts of the coated tubes decreased depending on the coating thickness. CrN was found to be very effective in reducing the wear, while the wear amounts were dependent on the coating thickness in the case of TiN and a thick coating of TiN was very effective on wear resistance.