• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.16-19
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• 2016

Needs for structural integrity procedure such as BS 7910, the nuclear industry document R6 Rev.4 and the European FITNET procedure are being increased in industry. Especially, BS 7910 allows metallic structures to be assessed on the basis of fracture mechanics analysis rather than strict adherence to design and fabricated codes. This study is to propose the flaw assessment to judge the toughness level of welding consumables at the development stage. The FCA welding consumables with YP 690MPa and CTOD over 0.25 mm have been developed and its allowable weld flaw size considering actually applied environment has been evaluated. Since the estimated allowable defect size is sufficiently detectable in nondestructive testing, the toughness of the developed material is judged to be appropriate and no problem in securing the structural integrity.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.20-24
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• 2015

Steam generator(S/G) tubes in pressurized water reactor (PWR's) are subject to several types of degradation. This degradation includes denting, pitting, intergranular attack(IGA), intergranular stress corrosion cracking(IGSCC), fatigue, fretting and wear. Degradation can be derived from either the primary side(inside) or the secondary side(outside) of the tube. Recent issue for tube degradation in domestic steam generator is the tube end cracking on seal weld region. The seal weld region at the tube end and tube itself is regarded as a pressure boundary between the primary side and the secondary side. One of the Westinghouse Model-F S/G has experienced tube end cracking and its number of plugging approximately becomes to the operating limit up to 5% due to tube end cracking which was reported as SAI/MAI(single/multiple axial indication) or SCI/MCI(Single/multiple circumferential indication) from the results of eddy current testing. Eddy current mock-up test was carried out to determine the origin of cracking whether it is from weld zone area or parent tube. This result was helpful to analyze crack location on ECT data. Correct action on this problem was the installation of tube-end sleeve. Last year, after removing 340 installed plugs from tubes, selected 269 tubes took tube-end sleeve installation. Tube-end sleeve brought pressure boundary from parent tube to installed sleeve tube. Tube-end sleeve has the benefit of reducing outage period and increasing more revenue than replacing S/G. This paper is provided to assist interest parties in effectively understanding this issue.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.483-491
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• 2011

The fabrication of steel structural members always involves welding process such as flux cored arc welding. Therefore, for the application of structural steels to cold regions, it is a prerequisite to clarify the service temperature of the welded joints in order to ensure the structural integrity of the welded parts. In this study, the Charpy impact test was conducted to evaluate the service temperature of structural steel weld. The Charpy impact test is a commercial quality control test for steels and other alloys used in the construction of metallic structures. The test allows the material properties for service conditions to be determined experimentally in a simple manner with a very low cost. Standard V-notch Charpy specimens were prepared and tested under dynamic loading condition. The service temperatures of the weld metal, HAZ (heat affected zone) and base metal were derived by the absorbed energy and the impact test requirements; thus the applicability of the structural steels to cold regions was discussed in detail.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.334-339
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• 2019

In this study, the vibration test method to nondestructively evaluate the possibility of vehicle BSR (Buzz, Squeak, Rattle) noise generation in spot-welded structures was proposed. The weld quality was predicted by analyzing the local vibration transmission characteristics for the beam-shaped structure attached to testing spots. The bending stiffness was evaluated from the identified vibration properties. From the change in the stiffness, the weld quality was evaluated. For verification of the proposed method, the welded specimens were fabricated with partial changes in welding parameters. The local vibration transfers were measured. The frequency bands affected by the weld quality was identified. The capability of evaluating the welding parameters including defect position and quality variations was investigated. The proposed method enables fast quality evaluation to minimize the possibility of BSR noise generation in the manufactured vehicle.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.1423-1432
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• 2016

The integrity of a reactor pressure vessel (RPV) related to pressurized thermal shocks (PTSs) has been extensively studied. This paper introduces an integrity assessment of an RPV subjected to a PTS transient based on the French codes. In the USA, the "screening criterion" for maximum allowable embrittlement of RPV material is developed based on the probabilistic fracture mechanics. However, in the French RCC-M and RSE-M codes, which are developed based on the deterministic fracture mechanics, there is no "screening criterion". In this paper, the methodology in the RCC-M and RSE-M codes, which are used for PTS analysis, are firstly discussed. The bases of the French codes are compared with ASME and FAVOR codes. A case study is also presented. The results show that the method in the RCC-M code that accounts for the influence of cladding on the stress intensity factor (SIF) may be nonconservative. The SIF almost doubles if the weld residual stress is considered. The approaches included in the codes differ in many aspects, which may result in significant differences in the assessment results. Therefore, homogenization of the codes in the long time operation of nuclear power plants is needed.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.309-316
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• 2004

A probabilistic structural integrity assessment is performed for a reactor pressure vessel under PTS(Pressurized Thermal Shock). A semi-elliptical finite axial crack is assumed to he in the beltline region(either base metal or weld meta)1 of the reactor vessel inside surface. The selected random variables are initial crack depth, neutron fluence on the vessel inside surface, copper, nickel, and phosphorus content of the vessel material, and RT/sub NDT/. The probabilities of crack initiation or vessel failure where the crack is propagated through vessel wall are calculated. The probabilities obtained with random crack size are compared to these obtained with deterministic us. Since the failure function cannot to explicitly by selected by selected random variables, Monte Carlo Simulation is applied to perform probabilistic analysis The influence of the amount of neutron fluence is also examined to assess the structural reliability for vessel life time.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.299-307
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• 2005

In general, structural integrity of rolling stock structures should last more than 25 years. During the lifetime corrosive degradation occurs. For structural design and diagnosis, quantitative relationship between corrosive degradation and variation of mechanical properties such as tensile strength and fatigue strength is needed. In this study, first of all we established the atmospheric corrosion test procedure. At regular intervals using specimens of SM490A and SS400 on the atmospheric corrosion test bed, we carried out tensile and fatigue tests. The fatigue strength decreases as the atmospheric corrosion period increases. In addition we studied the effect of post-weld heat treatment on the tensile and fatigue behaviour and performed electrochemical corrosion tests.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.421-426
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• 2005

In general, structural integrity of rolling stock structures should last more than 25 years. During the lifetime corrosive degradation occurs. For structural design and diagnosis, quantitative relationship between corrosive degradation and variation of mechanical properties such as tensile strength and fatigue strength is needed. In this study, first of all we established the atmospheric corrosion test procedure. At regular intervals using specimens of SM490A and SS400 on the atmospheric corrosion test bed, we carried out tensile and fatigue tests. The fatigue strength decreases as the atmospheric corrosion period increases. And we studied the effect of post-weld heat treatment on the tensile and fatigue behaviour.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.430-434
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• 2001

To perform the integrity evaluation of RPV more realistically, it is necessary to evaluate the metallurgical microstructure and residual stress considering more real phenomena such as multi-pass welding process and PWHT. Accordingly, firstly, this paper proposes the integrated assessment methodology systematically developed for residual stress on weldment of RPV by using thermodynamics, diffusion theory, finite element method and validation experiment. Also, the residual stress on circumferential weldment of reactor pressure vessel is calculated considering multi-pass welding process by the commercial finite element package, ABAQUS.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.138-143
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• 2001

To perform the rigorous integrity evaluation of RPV, it is necessary to consider metallurgical factors such as microstructure evolution during multi-pass welding process and PWHT. The microstructures of the heat affected zone(HAZ) of SA508 steel were predicted by a combination of simulated thermal analysis and a simple kinetic models for austenite grain growth and austenite-ferrite transformation. Phase equilibrium of SA508 steel were calculated using a Thermo-Calc package. Carbide growth in th HAZ were predicted by a empirical model, taking into account the predicted microstructure evolution.