• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.248-255
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• 2009

After several damages by PWSCC were found in the world, USNRC and PNNL(Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) started the research on PWSCC under the project name of PINC. The aim of the project was 1) to fabricate representative NDE mock-ups with flaws to simulate PWSCCs, 2) to identify and quantitatively assess NDE methods for accurately detecting, sizing and characterizing PWSCCs, 3) to document the range of locations and morphologies of PWSCCs and 4) to incorporate results with other results of ongoing PWSCC research programs, as appropriate. Korea nuclear industries have also been participating in the project. Thermally and mechanically cracked-four mockups were prepared and phased array and manual ultrasonic testing(UT) techniques were applied. The results and lessons learned from the preliminary RRT are summarized as follows: 1) Korea RRT teams performed the RRT successfully. 2) Crack detection probability of the participating organizations was an average 87%, 80% and 80% respectively. 3) RMS error of the crack sizing showed comparatively good results. 4) The lessons learned may be helpful to perform the PINC RRT and PSI /ISI in Korea in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.317-323
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• 2010

The manual ultrasonic examination for the nuclear power plant piping welds has been demonstrated by using KPD(Korean Performance Demonstration) generic procedure. For automated ultrasonic examination, there is no generic procedure and it should be qualified by using applicable automated equipment. Until now, most of qualified procedures used pulse-echo technique and there is no qualified procedure using phased array technique. In this study, data acquisition and analysis software were developed and phased-array transducer and wedge were designed to implement phased array technique for nuclear power plant in-service inspection. The developed procedure are qualified for performance demonstration for the flaw detection, length sizing and depth sizing. The qualified procedure will be applied for the field examination in the nuclear power plant piping weld inspection.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.568-575
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• 2010

Flow Accelerated Corrosion is an active degradation mechanism of CANDU feeder. The tight bend downstream to Gray loc weld connection, close to reactor face, suffers significant wall thinning by FAC. Extensive in-service inspection of feeder wall thinning is very difficult because of the intense radiation field, complex geometry, and space restrictions. Development of a knowledge-based inspection program is important in order to guarantee that adequate wall thickness is maintained throughout the whole life of feeder. Research results and plant experiences are reviewed, and the plant inspection databases from Wolsong Units One to Four are analyzed in order to support developing such a knowledge-based inspection program. The initial thickness before wall thinning is highly non-uniform because of bending during manufacturing stage, and the thinning rate is non-uniform because of the mass transfer coefficient distributed non-uniformly depending on local hydraulics. It is obvious that the knowledge-based feeder inspection program should focus on both fastest thinning locations and thinnest locations. The feeder wall thinning rate is found to be correlated proportionately with QV of each channel. A statistical model is proposed to assess the remaining life of each feeder using the QV correlation and the measured thicknesses. W-1 feeder suffered significant thinning so that the shortest remaining life barely exceeded one year at the end of operation before replacement. W-2 feeder showed far slower thinning than W-1 feeder despite the faster coolant flow. It is believed that slower thinning in W-2 is because of higher chromium content in the carbon steel feeder material. The average Cr content of W-2 feeder is 0.051%, while that value is 0.02% for W-1 feeder. It is to be noted that FAC is reduced substantially even though the Cr content of W-2 feeder is still very low.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.43-48
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• 2020

At present, 24 nuclear power plants are in operation nationwide as the main power source responsible for about 27% of Korea's electricity, and five nuclear power plants are currently under construction. Issues of nuclear safety and reliability have always existed, but after the Fukushima accident, ensuring reliability has become an even more important issue for safety. Compared to other kinds of accidents, the initial response after a nuclear accident is more important than any other accident. Prior to accidents, it is important to be able to predict and judge the accident in advance for the sake of prevention. In this research, non-destructive inspection methods for existing pipe welds include radiographic, ultrasonic, magnetic particle practice, and liquid penetration testing. For this experiment, carbon steel pipes like that of the material used in nuclear pipes were adopted, and specimen welded to the flange (Flange) were manufactured. After testing, the weld specimen were not damaged through the infrared thermography (IRT) experiment. This study attempted to improve the safety of carbon steel pipes through a comparative analysis of finite element analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.310-317
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• 1995

Crack detection technique by ultrasonics in structures and components made of austenitic stainless steel often loses its reliability due to the material characteristics during inservice inspection of nuclear power plants, especially in the area of detection and sizing in centrifugally cast stainless steel pipings. In order to understand and overcome this problem, computer program for tracing the ultrasonic rays within material has been developed to simulate the process of defect detection within weld. The program simulates through transmission and reflection technique in crack detection of austenitic stainless steel as well as ultrasonic beam propagation through multiple media including stainless steel cladding interface.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.1117-1124
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• 2009

Under frame side sill of rolling stock structure is designed for preventing corrosion in order to meet mechanical requirements. However during long operation time more than 20 years, there are corrosion in the under frame side sill caused by environmental effect, vibration and etc. So, detection and evaluation of the corrosion ill the under frame nondestructive is one of important issues to extend their life time. Most of nondestructive methods are not easy to apply for detecting corrosion in the under frame side sill, since the under frame side sill consist of there layered with different material (stainless steel - stainless steel - mild steel) and each layer is connected by spot weld and plug weld. Fortunately, pulsed eddy current method claimed that it can be measured not only thickness change but also corrosion under their insulation layers. So, in this study, we have investigated performance of pulsed eddy current testing method by measuring thickness variation of fabricate of mock-up specimens. The investigation results obtained from mock-up specimens and the corrosion evaluation results of the aged rolling stocks will be presented.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.1846-1857
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• 2021

Ultrasonic nondestructive testing is important for monitoring the structural integrity of dissimilar metal welds (DMWs) in pressure vessels and piping in nuclear power plants. However, there is a low probability of crack detection via inspection of DMWs using ultrasonic waves because the grain structures (grain orientations) of the weld area cause distortion and splitting of ultrasonic beams propagating in anisotropic media. To overcome this issue, the grain orientation should be known, and a precise ultrasonic wave simulation technique in anisotropic media is required to model the distortion and splitting of the waves accurately. In this study, a method for nondestructive prediction of the DMW grain orientations is presented for accurate simulation of ultrasonic wave propagation behavior in the weld area. The ultrasonic wave propagation behavior in anisotropic media is simulated via finite-element analysis when ultrasonic waves propagate in a transversely isotropic material. In addition, a methodology to predict the DMW grain orientation is proposed that employs a simulation technique for ultrasonic wave propagation behavior calculation and an optimization technique. The simulated ultrasonic wave behaviors with the grain orientations predicted via the proposed method demonstrate its usefulness. Moreover, the method can be used to determine the focal law in DMWs.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.38-44
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• 2003

Performance demonstration with real flawed specimens has been strongly required for nondestructive evaluation of safety class components in nuclear power plant. Mechanical or thermal fatigue crack and intergranular stress corrosion cracking could be occured in the in-service nuclear power plant and mechanical fatigue crack was selected to study in this paper. Specimen was designed to produce mechanical fatigue flaw under tensile stress. The number of cycles and the level of stress were controlled to obtain the desired flaw roughness. After the accurate physical measurement of the flaw size and location, fracture surface was seal-welded in place to ensure the designed location and site. The remaining weld groove was then filled by using gas-tungsten are welding(GTAW) and flux-cored arc welding(FCAW). Results of radio graphic and ultrasonic testing showed that fatigue cracks were consistent with the designed size and location in the final specimens.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.85-91
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• 1998

In nuclear fuel manufacturing process, end-closure welding has long been recognized as requiring very high integrity. In this basic study, ECT(eddy current testing) method for end-closure welding has been developed to detect end cap weld discontinuities for nuclear fuel safety. In order to improve the inspection reliability, the maximum scanning speed and the maximum frequency is investigated for end-closure welding inspection. The bandpass filter(0-250Hz) is used for removing noise effects. This study shows that ECT method is effective and sensitive for the detection of small defect(0.35mm diameter).

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.16-22
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• 2010

Cast austenitic stainless steel(CASS) is used in the primary cooling piping system of nuclear power plant for it's relative low cost, corrosion resistance and easy of welding. However, the coarse-grain structure of cast austenitic stainless steel can strongly affect the inspectability of ultrasonic testing. The major problems encountered during inspection are beam skewing, high attenuation and high background noise of CASS component. So far, the best inspection performance involving CASS components have been achieved using low frequency TRL(Transmitter/Receiver side-by-side L wave) angle beam probe. But TRL technique could not detect shallow defect and it contains an uncertainty for sizing capability. Currently, most of researchers are studying to overcome these challenge issue. In this study, low-frequency phased array TRL technique used to detect and sizing the flaws in CF8A cast austenitic stainless steel.As conclusion, we could detect and size not only axial flaw but also circumferential flaw using low frequency phased array technique.