• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.33-39
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• 2015

Pipe wall-thinning by flow-accelerated corrosion and various types of erosion is significant damage in secondary system piping of nuclear power plants(NPPs). All NPPs in Korea have management programs to ensure pipe integrity from degradation mechanisms. Ultrasonic test(UT) is widely used for pipe wall thickness measurement. Numerous UT measurements have been performed during scheduled outages. Wall-thinning rates are determined conservatively according to several evaluation methods developed by Electric Power Research Institute(EPRI). The issue of reliability caused by measurement error should be considered in the process of evaluation. The reliability analysis method was developed for single and multiple measurement data in the previous researches. This paper describes the application results of reliability analysis method to real measurement data during scheduled outage and proved its benefits.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.7
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• pp.607-614
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• 2008

Since pipes with wall-thinning defects can collapse at fluid pressure that are lower than expected, the collapse moment of wall-thinned pipes should be determined accurately for the safety of nuclear power plants. Wall-thinning defects, which are mostly found in pipe bends and elbows, are mainly caused by flow-accelerated corrosion. This lowers the failure pressure, load-carrying capacity, deformation ability, and fatigue resistance of pipe bends and elbows. This paper offers a support vector regression (SVR) model further enhanced with a fuzzy algorithm for calculation of the collapse moment and for evaluating the integrity of wall-thinned piping systems. The fuzzy support vector regression (FSVR) model is applied to numerical data obtained from finite element analyses of piping systems with wall-thinning defects. In this paper, three FSVR models are developed, respectively, for three data sets divided into extrados, intrados, and crown defects corresponding to three different defect locations. It is known that FSVR models are sufficiently accurate for an integrity evaluation of piping systems from laser or ultrasonic measurements of wall-thinning defects.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.245-252
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• 2016

The pipelines and equipments are degraded by flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC), and a large-scale test facility was constructed for simulate the FAC phenomena in secondary coolant environment of PWR type nuclear power plants. Using this facility, FAC test was performed on weld pipe (carbon steel and low alloy steel) at the conditions of high velocity flow (> 10 m/s). Wall thickness was measured by high temperature ultrasonic monitoring systems (four-channel buffer rod type and waveguide type) during test period and room temperature manual ultrasonic method before and after test period. This work deals with the complex effects of flow velocity on the wall thinning in weld pipe and the test results showed that the higher flow velocity induced different increasement of wall thinning rate for the carbon steel and low alloy steel pipe.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.76-83
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• 2014

This study was carried out an experimental and finite element analysis on the fracture behavior of straight pipes with local wall thinning under internal pressure. Local wall thinning was machined on the pipes in order to simulate erosion/corrosion metal loss. The configurations of the eroded area has an eroded ratio of d/t=0.80~0.92 and an eroded length of l=25, 50 and 102 mm. Three-dimensional elastic-plastic analyses were also carried out using the finite element method, which is able to accurately simulate failure behaviors. In regards to the relation ship between pressure and eroded ratio, the criterion that can be used safely under operating pressure and design pressure were obtained from this calculation. The results of this calculation were in relatively good agreement with that of the experiment.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.90-95
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• 2014

Local wall thinning is a point of concern in almost all steel structures such as pipe lines covered with a thermal insulator made up of materials with low thermal conductivity(fiberglass or mineral wool); hence, Non Destructive Technique(NDT) methods that are capable of detecting the wall thinning and defects without removing the insulation are necessary. In this study we developed a Pulsed Eddy Current(PEC) system to detect the wall thinning of Ferro magnetic steel pipes covered with fiber glass thermal insulator and shielded with Aluminum plate. The developed system is capable of detecting the wall thickness change through an insulation of thickness 10cm and 0.4mm aluminum shielding. In order to confirm the thickness change due to wall thinning, two different sensors, a hall sensor and coil sensor were used as a detecting element. In both cases, the results show a very good change corresponding to the thickness change of the test specimen. During these experiments a carbon steel tube of diameter 210mm and a length of 620mm, which is covered with insulator of 95mm thickness was used. To simulate the wall thinning, the thickness of the tube is changed for a specified length such as 2.5mm, 5mm and 8 mm from the inner surface of the tube. A 0.4mm thick Aluminum plate was covered on the Test specimen to simulate the shielding of the insulated pipelines. For both hall sensor and coil detection methods Fast Fourier transform(FFT) was calculated using window approach and the results for the test specimen without Aluminum shielding were summarized which shows a clear identification of thickness change in the test specimen by comparing the magnitude spectra. The PEC system can detect the wall thinning under the 95 mm thickness insulation and 0.4 mm Al shielding, and the output signal showed linear relation with tube wall thickness.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.9
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• pp.2119-2129
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• 2020

Flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC), liquid droplet impingement erosion (LDIE), cavitation and flashing can cause continuous wall-thinning in nuclear secondary pipes. In order to prevent pipe rupture events resulting from the wall-thinning, most NPPs (nuclear power plants) implement their management programs, which include periodic thickness inspection using UT (ultrasonic test). Meanwhile, it is well known in field experiences that the thickness measurement errors (or deviations) are often comparable with the amount of thickness reduction. Because of these errors, it is difficult to estimate wall-thinning exactly whether the significant thinning has occurred in the inspected components or not. In the previous study, the authors presented an approximate estimation procedure as the first step for thickness measurement deviations at each inspected component and the statistical & quantitative characteristics of the measurement deviations using plant experience data. In this study, statistical significance was quantified for the current methods used for wall-thinning determination. Also, the authors proposed new estimation procedures for determining local wall-thinning to overcome the weakness of the current methods, in which the proposed procedure is based on analysis of variance (ANOVA) method using subgrouping of measured thinning values at all measurement grids. The new procedures were also quantified for their statistical significance. As the results, it is confirmed that the new methods have better estimation confidence than the methods having used until now.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.170-176
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• 2012

In the nuclear industry, wall thinning defect of straight pipe occur the enormous loss in life evaluation and safety evaluation. To use non-destructive technique, we measure deformation, vibration, defect evaluation. But, this techniques are a weak that is the measurement of the wide area is difficult and the time is caught long. In the secondary side of nuclear power plants mostly used steel pipe, artificiality wall thinning defect make in the side and different thickness make to the each other, wall thinning defect part of deformation measure by using shearography. In addition, optical measurement through deformation, vibration, defect evaluation evaluate pipe and thickness defects of pressure vessel is to evaluate quantitatively. By shearography interferometry to measure the pipe's internal wall thinning defect and the variation of pressure use the proposed technique, the quantitative defect is to evaluate the thickness of the surplus. The amount of deformation use thickness of surplus prediction of the actual thickness defect and approximately 7 percent error by ensure reliability. According to pressure the amount of deformation and the thickness of the surplus through DB construction, nuclear power plant pipe use wall thinning part soundness evaluation. In this study, pressure vessel of thickness defect measure proposed nuclear pipe of wall thinning defect prediction and integrity assessment technology development. As a basic research defected theory and experiment, pressure vessel of advanced stability and soundness and maintainability is expected to contribute foundation establishment.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.130-138
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• 2014

Wall thinning can be classified into three types: flow-accelerated corrosion, cavitation erosion and solid particle erosion. This article presents a study of solid particle erosion, which frequently causes damages to power plants' pipe system. Unlike previous studies, this study uses a mechanism to make solid particles in a fluid flow collide with pipe materials in underwater condition. Experiment is conducted in three cases of velocity according to solid-water ratio using the three types of the materials of A106B, SS400, and A6061. The experiments were performed for 30 days, and the surface morphology and hardness of the materials were examined for every 7 days. Based on the velocity change of the solid particles in a fluid flow, the surface changes, the change in the amount of erosion, the erosion rate and the variation in the hardness of carbon steel and aluminum family pipe materials can all be determined. In addition, factor-based erosion rates are verified and a wall-thinning relation function is suggested for the pipe materials.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.317-321
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• 2008

Piping in the Nuclear Power plants (NPP) are mostly consisted of carbon steel pipe. The wall thinning defect is mainly occurred by the affect of the flow accelerated corrosion (FAC) of fluid which flows in carbon steel pipes. This type of defect becomes the cause of damage or destruction of piping. Therefore, it is very important to measure defect which is existed not only on the welding partbut also on the whole field of pipe. Over the years, Infrared thermography (IRT) has been used as a non destructive testing methods of the various kinds of materials. This technique has many merits and applied to the industrial field but has limitation to the materials. Therefore, this method was combined with lock-in technique. So IRT detection resolution has been progressively improved using lock-in technique. In this paper, the quantitative analysis results of the location and the size of wall thinning defect that is artificially processed inside the carbon steel pipe by using IRT are obtained.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.647-657
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• 2012

Although nuclear power plant piping system is designed conforming to design specifications, the piping systems are deteriorated with increase in service life. In this study, monotonic and cyclic loading tests were carried out on TP316 stainless steel pipe specimens, and the effect of local wall thinning and cracking on failure behavior was investigated. In the tests, 0%, 35% and 75% wall thinning and cracking of initial thickness were artificially introduced to inside elbow and straight pipe specimens, and internal pressures of 20MPa were applied to simulate real operation condition. From the test results, the effect of local wall thinning and cracking on failure mode, ultimate load, number of cycle and strain energy was presented, and maximum bending moment was compared with allowable bending moment calculated by ASME code.