• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.2107-2119
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• 2022

Accurate remaining useful life (RUL) prediction for critical components of nuclear power equipment is an important way to realize aging management of nuclear power equipment. The electric gate valve is one of the most safety-critical and widely distributed mechanical equipment in nuclear power installations. However, the electric gate valve's extended service in nuclear installations causes aging and degradation induced by crack propagation and leakages. Hence, it is necessary to develop a robust RUL prediction method to evaluate its operating state. Although the particle filter(PF) algorithm and its variants can deal with this nonlinear problem effectively, they suffer from severe particle degeneracy and depletion, which leads to its sub-optimal performance. In this study, we combined the whale algorithm with regularized particle filtering(RPF) to rationalize the particle distribution before resampling, so as to solve the problem of particle degradation, and for valve RUL prediction. The valve's crack propagation is studied using the RPF approach, which takes the Paris Law as a condition function. The crack growth is observed and updated using the root-mean-square (RMS) signal collected from the acoustic emission sensor. At the same time, the proposed method is compared with other optimization algorithms, such as particle swarm optimization algorithm, and verified by the realistic valve aging experimental data. The conclusion shows that the proposed method can effectively predict and analyze the typical valve degradation patterns.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1135-1151
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• 2016

For investigating the effect of the pre-existing joints on the initiation pattern of hydraulic fractures, the numerical simulation of circular holes under internal hydraulic pressure with a different pattern of the joint distributions are conducted by using a finite element code, FRANC2D. The pattern of hydraulic fracturing initiation are scrutinized with changing the values of the joint length, joint offset angle. The hydraulic pressures with 70% of the peak value of borehole wall breakout pressure are applied at the similar models. The simulation results suggest that the opening-mode fracture initiated from the joint tip and propagated toward the borehole for critical values of ligament angle and joint offset angle. At these critical values, the crack grow length is influenced by joint ligament length. When the ligament length is less than 3 times the borehole diameter the crack growth length increases monotonically with increasing joint length. The opening-mode fracture disappears at the joint tip as the ligament length increases.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.325-334
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• 2017

In the present study, a numerical model for probability analysis of optimal design of fatigue non-uniform crack growth behaviour of a cracked aluminium 2024 T3 plate repaired with a bonded composite patch is investigated. The proposed 3D numerical model has advanced in literatures, which gathers in a unique study: problems of reliability, optimization, fatigue, cracks and repair of plates subjected to tensile loadings. To achieve this aim, a finite element modelling is carried out to determine the evolution of the stress intensity factor at the crack tip Paris law is used to predict the fatigue life for a give n crack. To have an optimal volume of our patch satisfied the practical fatigue life, a procedure of optimization is proposed. Finally, the probabilistic analysis is performed in order to a show that optimized patch design is influenced by uncertainties related to mechanical and geometrical properties during the manufacturing process.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.295-305
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• 2023

This study introduces a smoothed finite-element implementation into the phase-field framework. In recent years, the phase-field method has recieved considerable attention in crack initiation and propagation since the method needs no further treatment to express the crack growth path. In the phase-field method, high strain-energy accuracy is needed to capture the complex crack growth path; thus, it is obtained in the framework of the smoothed finite-element method. The salient feature of the smoothed finite-element method is that the finite element cells are divided into sub-cells and each sub-cell is rebuilt as a smoothing domain where smoothed strain energy is calculated. An adaptive quadtree refinement is also employed in the present framework to avoid the computational burden. Numerical experiments are performed to investigate the performance of the proposed approach, compared with that of the finite-element method and the reference solutions.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.8 no.1 s.27
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• pp.139-152
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• 2006

Many experimental and numerical approaches have been developed to evaluate paving materials and to predict pavement response and distress. Micromechanical simulation modeling is a technology that can reduce the number of physical tests required in material formulation and design and that can provide more details, e.g., the internal stress and strain state, and energy evolution and dissipation in simulated specimens with realistic microstructural features. A clustered distinct element modeling (DEM) approach was implemented In the two-dimensional particle flow software package (PFC-2D) to study the complex behavior observed in asphalt mixture fracturing. The relationship between continuous and discontinuous material properties was defined based on the potential energy approach. The theoretical relationship was validated with the uniform axial compression and cantilever beam model using two-dimensional plane strain and plane stress models. A bilinear cohesive displacement-softening model was implemented as an intrinsic interface and applied for both homogeneous and heterogeneous fracture modeling in order to simulate behavior in the fracture process zone and to simulate crack propagation. A disk-shaped compact tension test (DC(T)) with heterogeneous microstructure was simulated and compared with the experimental fracture test results to study Mode I fracture. The realistic arbitrary crack propagation including crack deflection, microcracking, crack face sliding, crack branching, and crack tip blunting could be represented in the fracture models. This micromechanical modeling approach represents the early developmental stages towards a 'virtual asphalt laboratory,' where simulations of laboratory tests and eventually field response and distress predictions can be made to enhance our understanding of pavement distress mechanisms, such its thermal fracture, reflective cracking, and fatigue crack growth.

• Magazine of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.235-243
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• 1996

The mechanical behavior ot concrete is strongly influenced by various scenarios of crack initiation and crack propagation. Recently. the study of the interface fracture and cracking in interfacial regions is emerged as an important field, in the context of the developement of high performance concrete composites. The crack path criterion for elastically homogeneous materials is not valid when the crack advances at an interface because. in this case, the consideration of the relative magnitudes of the fracture toughnesses between the constituent materials and the interface are involved. In this paper, a numerical method is presented to obtain the values of two interfacial fracture parameters such as the energy release rate and the phase angle at the tip of an existing interface crack. Criteria based on energy release rate concepts are suggested for the prediction of crack growth at the interfaces and an hybrid experimental-numerical study is presented on the two-phase beam composite models containing interface cracks to investigate the cracking scenarios in interfacial regions. In general, good agreement between the experimental results and the prediction from the criteria is obtained.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.16 no.5 s.72
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• pp.713-724
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• 2004

A fatigue crack found at the coped stringer of the old dismantled Dangsan Subway Bridge was numerically simulated. A model of a single span of the plate girder bridge with its beam elements was created and analyzed in order to obtain the nominal stress history caused by trains. A detailed FEM analysis of the coped stringer was conducted using a shell element model. A fracture mechanical model was used to estimate crack propagation. The stress intensity factors were calculated using the J-Integral method. The simulation with some reasonable assumptions showed that the calculated crack lengths were comparable to those found on the site.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.2 no.6
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• pp.499-516
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• 2005

A composite model is used to represent the heterogeneity of plain concrete consisting of coarse aggregates, mortar matrix and the mortar-aggregate interface. The composite elements of plain concrete are modeled using triangular finite element units which have six interface nodes along the sides. Fracture is captured through a constitutive single branch softening-fracture law at the interface nodes, which bounds the elastic domain inside each triangular unit. The inelastic displacement at an interface node represents the crack opening or sliding displacement and is conjugate to the internodal force. The path-dependent softening behaviour is developed within a quasi-prescribed displacement control formulation. The crack profile is restricted to the interface boundaries of the defined mesh. No re-meshing is carried out. Solutions to the rate formulation are obtained using a mathematical programming procedure in the form of a linear complementary problem. An event by event solution strategy is adopted to eliminate solutions with simultaneous formation of softening zones in symmetric problems. The composite plain concrete model is compared to experimental results for the tensile crack growth in a Brazilian test and three-point bending tests on different sized specimens. The model is also used to simulate wedge-type shear-compression failure directly under the loading platen of a Brazilian test.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.400-405
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• 2004

In this study, the optimal welding condition of the input power was selected experimentally through the ERW simulator, which is equal to welding status of ERW part in pipe. This condition is the input power 250kW in the heat treatment of the $900^{\circ}C$ normalizing derived from the nondestructive technique and impact energy. In order to evaluate the variation of the fatigue life in the pipe, fatigue surface crack growth test of base and optimal welded metal were performed statistically. As stress intensity factor range (${\Delta}K_s$) increases, the fatigue crack propagation rate (da/aN) of the base metal is faster than that of the welded joint. The variation of the fatigue life in the ERW pipe was estimated statistically using Monte-Carlo simulation with the standard deviation of material constants (C and m) of the paris law in the specimen.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.459-464
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• 2001

For major nuclear power plant components periodic inspections and integrity assessments are needed for the safety. But many flaws are undetectable due to sampling inspection. Probabilistic integrity assessment is applied to take into consideration of uncertainty and variance of input parameters arise due to material properties, applied load and undetectable flaws. This paper describes a Probabilistic Fracture Mechanics(PFM) analysis based on Monte Carlo(MC) algorithms. Taking important parameters as probabilistic variables such as fracture toughness, crack growth rate and flaw shape, failure probability of major nuclear power plant components is archived as a results of MC simulation. For the verification of these analysis, a comparison study of the PFM analysis using other commercial code, mathematical method is carried out and a good agreement was observed between those results.