• 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.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.28-35
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• 2021

The flow accelerated corrosion (FAC) is one of significant aging and degradation mechanism and can affect structural integrity of CANDU feeder pipes. Pipe burst can occur under normal operation pressure (min. 10 MPa) if wall-thinning of the feeder pipe due to FAC is accumulated. Previous studies considered simple shapes of feeder pipe with local wall-thinning in order to conservatively assess structural integrity of wall-thinned feeder pipe. In this paper, a new FE model is developed, having an actual shape of the feeder pipe (double bent) as well as the actual wall-thinning shape and location based on the in-service inspection result. Then, the burst pressure assessment of the wall-thinned feeder pipe is performed using lower bound limit load analysis considering elastic-perfectly plastic material. In addition, an improved formulation to predict the burst pressure of the wall-thinned feeder pipe is presented and the safety margin is compared with an existing assessment method.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.947-957
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• 2023

Curved cylindrical structures such as elbows have a non-uniform thickness distribution due to their fabrication process, and as a result have a number of complex mode shapes, including circumferential and axial nodal patterns. In nuclear power plants, material degradation is induced in pipes by flow accelerated erosion and corrosion, causing the wall thickness of carbon steel elbows to gradually thin. The corresponding frequencies of each mode shape vary according to the wall thinning state. Therefore, the thinning state can be estimated by monitoring the varying modal characteristics of the elbow. This study investigated the varying modal characteristics of artificially thinned carbon steel elbows for each thinning state using numerical simulation and experimental methods (MRIT, Multiple Reference Impact Test). The natural frequencies of specified mode shapes were extracted, and results confirmed they linearly decreased with increasing thinning. In addition, by comparing single FRF (Frequency Response Function) data with the results of MRIT, a concise and cost effective thinning estimation method was suggested.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.357-362
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• 2001

The pipe fracture tests were performed on 102mm-Sch.80 carbon steel pipe with various local wall thinning shapes, in order to understand failure behavior of thinned pipe. Pipe specimens were subjected to monotonic bending moment, using 4-points loading system, under internally pressurized condition. From the results of experiment, the failure mode, load carrying capacity, and deformability of local wall thinning pipe were investigated. Failure mode of thinned pipe depended on magnitude of internal pressure and thinning length as well as loading direction and thinning depth and angle. The variation in load carrying capacity and deformability of thinned pipe with length of thinned area was determined by stress type appled to thinning region and circumferential thinning angle. Also, the effect of internal pressure on failure behavior was dependent on failure mode of thinned pipe, and it promoted crack occurrence and mitigated local buckling at thinned area.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.1063-1071
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• 2008

This paper provides a failure pressure evaluation model for local wall-thinned elbows. In this study, parametric finite element analyses are performed on the elbows containing local wall-thinning defect at their intrados and extrados, and the failure pressures are obtained from the analysis results by applying a local failure criterion that was validated by real-scale pipe tests. An evaluation model including the effects of thinning depth, length, circumferential angle, thinning location, and elbow geometries on the failure pressure is derived based on the evaluated failure pressures. The proposed model agrees well with the results of finite element analyses and reasonably estimates the dependence of failure pressure on the wall-thinning dimensions and elbow geometries. Also, the comparison with experimental data demonstrates that the proposed evaluation model can accurately predict the failure pressure of local wall-thinned elbows.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2014.10a
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• pp.545-547
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• 2014

The portable vibration signal-based pipe wall thinning inspection device was developed in this work. Compared to wall-thinning detection using conventional ultrasonic thickness measurement gauge, the proposed device can estimate average wall thickness of wide range and be applied to in-service pipes. The measurement principle of the device was briefly described and the configrations of hardware and software were explained. It was shown that the device can gauge average wall-thickness of test specimens with high precision.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.120-125
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• 2007

Put Abstract text here The strain distribution measurement for wall thinned pipe bends by ESPI is presented. Defect types observed in the steel piping in the nuclear power plants (NPP) are the crack at the weld part and the wall thinning defect in the pipe bends. Especially, the wall thinning defects in the pipe bends due to the flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC) is a main type of defects observed in the carbon steel piping system. ESPI is one of the optical non-destructive testing methods and can measure the stress and the strain distribution of the object subjected by the tensile loading or the internal pressure. In this paper, the strain distribution of the wall thinned pipe bends due to the internal pressure will be measured by ESPI technique and the results are discussed. From the results, the size of the wall thinning defect can also be measured approximately.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.31 no.1 s.256
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• pp.1-7
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• 2007

Feedwater heaters of many nuclear power plants have recently experienced severe wall thinning damage, which will increase as operating time progresses. Several nuclear power plants in Korea have experienced wall thinning damage in the area around the impingement baffle - installed downstream of the high pressure turbine extraction steam line - inside number 5A and 5B feedwater heaters. At that point, the extracted steam from the high pressure turbine is two phase fluid at high temperature, high pressure, and high speed. Since it flows in reverse direction after impinging the impingement baffle, the shell wall of the number 5 high pressure feedwater heater may be affected by flow-accelerated corrosion. This paper describes the comparisons between the numerical analysis results using the FLUENT code and the down scale experimental data in an effort to determine root causes of the shell wall thinning of the high pressure feedwater heaters. The numerical analysis and experimental data were also confirmed by actual wall thickness measured by an ultrasonic test.

• Journal of ILASS-Korea
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.24-30
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• 2004

Feedwater flowing tube side of number 5 high pressure feedwatrr heaters was heated by extracting steam from high pressure turbine and draining water from moisture separators and number 6 high pressure feedwater heaters and supplied into steam generators. Because the extracting steam from the high pressure turbine is two phase fluid of high temperature, high pressure, and high speed and flows to inverse direction after impinging to impingement baffle. the shell wall of the number 5 high pressure feedwater heater may be affected by flow accelerated corrosion. On May 14, 1999, Point Beach Nuclear Plant (PBNP) with operating at full power experienced a steam leak from rupture of shell side of number 4B feedwater heater. Also, d domestic nuclear power plant experienced a severe wall thinning of shell side of number 5A and 5B feedwater heaters. This paper describes the fluid mixing analysis study using PHOENICS code in order to get at the root of the shell wall thinning of the feedwater heaters. The sections included in the fluid mixing analysis model are around the number 5h feedwater heater shell including the extracting pipeline. To identify the relation between the local velocities and wall thinning. the local velocities according to the analysis results were compared with the distribution of the shell wall thickness by ultrasonic test.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.199-204
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• 2008

The generation of axisymmetric Lamb waves and interaction with wall thinning (corrosion) defects in hollow cylinders are simulated using the finite element method. Guided wave interaction with defects in cylinders is challenged by the multi-mode dispersion and the mode conversion. In this paper, two longitudinal, axisymmetric modes are generated using the concept of a time-delay periodic ring arrays (TDPRA), which makes use of the constructive/destructive interference concept to achieve the unidirectional emission and reception of guided waves. The axisymmetric scattering by the wall thinning extending in full circumference of a cylinder is studied with a two-dimensional FE simulation. The effect of wall thinning depth, axial extension, and the edge shape on the reflections of guided waves is discussed.