• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.353-358
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• 2004

Tracing the study of the burst test of steam generator tube, few studies have been reported to effect of external pressure acting on secondary-side in service condition. In this study the burst tests of Inconel 690TT were conducted in order to evaluate burst strength characteristics under the effect of external pressure. We obtained the result that the burst strength of Inconel 690TT increased when external pressure increased while both total circumferential elongation and uniform burst elongation were not affected. Also, according to the increased of external pressure, the size of the burst opening became smaller and the tear was getting severe.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.30-33
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• 2004

It has been reported that some events of a rupture of seam generator tube have occurred in nuclear power plants around the world. Main causes of the leakage are from various types of corrosion in the steam generator(SG) tubings. Primary water stress corrosion cracking(PWSCC) of steam generator tubings have occurred in many tubes in Korean plant, and they were repaired using sleeves or plugs, In order to develop proper repair criteria, it is necessary to ascertain the leak behavior of the tubings. A high pressure leak and burst testing system was manufactured. Various types of Electro Discharged Machined (EDM) notches were developed on the SG tubes. Leak rate and burst pressure were measured on the tubes at room temperature. Burst pressure of the part through wall defected tubes depends on the defect depth, Water flow rates after the burst were independent of the t1aw types; tubes having 20 to 60 mm long EDM notches showed similar flow rates regardless of the defect depth. A fast pressurization rate gave the tube a lower burst pressure than the case of a slow pressurization.

• 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.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.11
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• pp.2565-2571
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• 2020

Background: Understanding the behaviour of nuclear fuel claddings by conducting burst test on single cladding tube under simulated loss-of-coolant accident conditions and developing theoretical cum empirical predictive computer codes have been the focus of several investigations. The developed burst criterion (a) assumes symmetrical deformation of cladding tube in contrast to experimental observation (b) interpolates the properties of Zircaloy-4 cladding in mixed α+β phase (c) does not account for azimuthal temperature variations. In order to overcome all these drawbacks of burst criterion, it is reasoned that artificial intelligence technique may be a better option to predict the burst parameters. Methods: Artificial neural network models based on feedforward backpropagation algorithm with logsig transfer function are developed. Results: Neural network architecture of 2-4-4-3, that is model with two hidden layers having four nodes in each layer is found to be the most suitable. The mean, maximum, and minimum prediction errors for this optimised model are 0.82%, 19.62%, and 0.004%, respectively. Conclusion: The burst stress, burst temperature, and burst strain obtained from burst criterion have average deviation of 19%, 12%, and 53% respectively whereas the developed neural network model predicted these parameters with average deviation of 6%, 2%, and 8%, respectively.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.56-63
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• 2014

In this research, burst tests for axial notched steam generator tubes were conducted. To measure the burst pressure of notched tubes, a burst testing system was manufactured. The tests were conducted under internal pressure at room temperature. Part-through-wall and through-wall notches which have various geometries with different depths and lengths were machined by electro-discharged-machined(EDM) method. The burst pressure decreased exponentially with increasing notch length and decreased almost linearly with increasing notch depth. A comparison of the burst pressure with existing burst pressure solutions for cracked tube show that the existing solution agree well with the test results.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.30 no.12 s.255
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• pp.1618-1625
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• 2006

During the last two decades, several guidelines have been developed and used for assessing the integrity of a defective steam generator (SG) tube that is generally caused by stress corrosion cracking or wall-thinning phenomenon. However, as some of SG tubes are also failed due to fretting and so on, alternative failure estimation schemes are required for relevant defects. In this paper, parametric three-dimensional finite element (FE) analyses are carried out under internal pressure condition to simulate the failure behavior of SG tubes with different defect configurations; elliptical wear, tapered and flat wear type defects. Maximum pressures based on material strengths are obtained from more than a hundred FE results to predict the failure of SG tube. After investigating the effect of key parameters such as defect depth, defect length and wrap angle, simplified failure estimation equations are proposed in relation to the equivalent stress at the deepest point in wear region. Comparison of failure pressures predicted by the proposed estimation scheme with corresponding burst test data showed a good agreement.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.7
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• pp.2312-2322
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• 2021

In recent studies, the creep rate of Zircaloy-4, one of the basic property parameters of the nuclear fuel code, has been commonly used with the axial creep model proposed by Rosinger et al. However, in order to calculate the circumferential deformation of the fuel cladding, there is a limitation that a difference occurs depending on the anisotropic coefficients used in deriving the circumferential creep equation by using the axial creep equation. Therefore, in this study, the existing axial creep law and the derived circumferential creep results were analyzed through a circumferential creep test by the internal pressurization method in the isothermal conditions. The circumferential creep deformation was measured through the optical image analysis method, and the results of the experiment were investigated through constructed IDECA (In-situ DEformation Calculation Algorithm based on creep) code. First, preliminary tests were performed in the isotropic β-phase. Subsequently in the anisotropic α-phase, the correlations obtained from a series of circumferential creep tests were compared with the axial creep equation, and optimized anisotropic coefficients were proposed based on the performed circumferential creep results. Finally, the IDECA prediction results using optimized anisotropic coefficients based on creep tests were validated through tube burst tests in transient conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1995.05a
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• pp.611-616
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• 1995

핵연료 피복관의 일차 결함을 통해서 유입되는 냉각수에 의한 피복관 내면의 산화와 이에 따른 수소침투가 핵연료 피복관의 기계적 건전성에 미치는 영향을 규명하기 위한 연구를 수행하였다. 시험 시편은 Westinghouse, NRG, Sandvik에서 제조되는 Zircaloy-4 tube와 Westinghouse사에 개발한 신 합금인 ZIRLO™를 동일한 조건에서 수증기 산화와 수소 주입 실험을 수행하여 제조회사별 성능 평가를 하였으며 기계적 건전성 저하의 평가 방법으로 튜브 파열 실험(tube burst test)을 상온에서 수행하였다. 그 결과는 수소 침투량에 따라 피복관의 기계적 건전성이 지수적으로 감소하는 경향을 보였으며 500ppm이상에서는 취성파괴현상을 보이며 심각한 연성저하를 나타냈다. 제조회 사별 성능 평가에서는 A사 제품이 내식성과 수소흠수특성에서 다른 B, C, D사 제품에 비해 떨어지는 것으로 나타났다.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.240-249
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• 1992

The objective of this study is to investigate the characteristics of welded joints on the Zircaloy-4 resistance upset welding for HWR(Heavy Water reactor)fuel rods. To estimate the characteristics of welded joints, the various tests were performed on the test coupons systematically with a wide range of each welding parameters in terms of a tensile test, burst test, knoop hardness test and metallography. Major results obtained in this study are as follows: 1. The tube and machined with 120.deg. projection was the reliable weld joint design for the nuclear fuel rod end cap welding. 2. As the weld current and the amount of upset increased linearly with increasing welding main heat input, it could make an estimate of their variation in accordance with the phase shift control. 3. It was found that an increase in squeeze force has an effect on the upset contour of welded joint because the amount of upset were increased by the change of squeeze force.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.218-222
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• 2018

An oxide-dispersion-strengthened (ODS) layer was formed on Zircaloy-4 tubes by a laser beam scanning process to increase mechanical strength. Laser beam was used to scan the yttrium oxide ($Y_2O_3$)-coated Zircaloy-4 tube to induce the penetration of $Y_2O_3$ particles into Zircaloy-4. Laser surface treatment resulted in the formation of an ODS layer as well as microstructural phase transformation at the surface of the tube. The mechanical strength of Zircaloy-4 increased with the formation of the ODS layer. The ring-tensile strength of Zircaloy-4 increased from 790 to 870 MPa at room temperature, from 500 to 575 MPa at $380^{\circ}C$, and from 385 to 470 MPa at $500^{\circ}C$. Strengthening became more effective as the test temperature increased. It was noted that brittle fracture occurred at room temperature, which was not observed at elevated temperatures. Resistance to dynamic high-temperature bursting improved. The burst temperature increased from 760 to $830^{\circ}C$ at a heating rate of $5^{\circ}C/s$ and internal pressure of 8.3 MPa. The burst opening was also smaller than those in fresh Zircaloy-4 tubes. This method is expected to enhance the safety of Zr fuel cladding tubes owing to the improvement of their mechanical properties.