• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.319-328
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• 2006

A simple approximation method for the stress intensity factor at the tip of the axial semielliptical cracks on the cylindrical vessel is developed. The approximation methods, incorporated in VINTIN (Vessel INTegrity analysis-INner flaws), utilizes the influence coefficients to calculate the stress intensity factor at the crack tip. This method has been compared with other solution methods including 3-D finite element analysis for internal pressure, cooldown, and pressurized thermal shock loading conditions. For these, 3-D finite-element analyses are performed to obtain the stress intensity factors for various surface cracks with t/R=0.1. The approximation solutions are within $\pm2.5%$ of the those of finite element analysis using symmetric model of one-forth of a vessel under pressure loading, and 1-3% higher under pressurized thermal shock condition. The analysis results confirm that the approximation method provides sufficiently accurate stress intensity factor values for the axial semi-elliptical flaws on the surface of the reactor pressure vessel.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.280-285
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• 2001

As an integral part of the probabilistic fracture mechanics analysis, stress intensity factor calculation scheme for semi-elliptical surface flaws in thin-walled cylinder has been introduced. The approximation solution utilizes the influence coefficients to calculate the stress intensity factor at the crack tip. This method has been compared with other solution methods including 3-D finite element analysis for cooldown boundary condition. The analysis results confirmed that the simplified methods provided sufficiently accurate stress intensity factor values for axial semi-elliptcal flaws on the surface of the reactor pressure vessel.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.216-227
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• 2005

The head penetrations for control rod drive mechanism and instrumentation systems are installed at the reactor pressure vessel head of PWRs. Primary coolant water and the operating conditions of PWR plants can cause cracking of these nickel-based alloy through a process called primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC). Inspection of the head penetrations to ensure the integrity of the head penetrations has been interested since reactor coolant leakages were found at U. S. reactors in 2000 and 2001. The complex geometry of the head penetrations and the very low echo amplitude from the fine, multiple flaws due to the nature of the see made it difficult to detect and size the flaws using conventional pulse-echo UT methods. Time-of-flight-diffraction technique, which utilizes the time difference between the flaw tips while pulse-echo does the flaw response amplitude from the flaw, has been selected for this inspection for it's best performance of the detection and sizing of the head penetration see flaws. This study defines the limits of the detectable and accurately sizable minimum flaw size which can be detected by the General TOFD and the Delta TOFD techniques for circumferentially and axially oriented flaws respectively. These results assures the reliability of the inspection techniques to detect and accurately size for various kind of flaws, and will also be utilized for the future development and qualifications of the TOFD techniques to enhance the detecting sensitivity and sizing accuracy of the flaws of the reactor head penetrations in nuclear power plants.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.15-19
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• 2014

A Failure or degradation of reactor upper head penetration is a recurring problem due to long term operation at nuclear power plants. And a flaw in the reactor upper head penetration has caused unplanned plant shutdown for repair as well as high economic impact on the plants. Consequently, a detection of flaws is of the utmost importance. Prior to the replacement of reactor upper head penetration, some utilities have repaired the flaws of reactor upper head penetration generated by overlay weld. Until now, only the base metal in reactor upper head penetration has been inspected according to 10 CFR 50.55a and ASME code case N-729-1. Accordingly, it is difficult to detect manufacturing defects and repair defects in overlay weld. This paper presents a case study on the application of Time of Flight Diffraction technique for reactor head penetration mockup with artificial flaws in overlay weld. This study offers a way to understand the flaws detected in reactor upper head penetration overlay weld.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.17-19
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• 2007

The fatigue experiments of friction stir welded Al-6061-T6 alloy with and with out back bead were performed to investigate the variation in fatigue strength and life of the Joint. It was found that there were always existed flaws at the roots of friction stir welds for the normal welding parameters and clamping conditions. In order to overcome this root flaws, friction stir welds with optimum back bead has been developed. The test results with root flaws and with back bead were compared. The fatigue life of weld with root flaws was 5-10 times shorter than that of the friction stir weld with back bead.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.53-56
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• 2008

We have developed a system for nondestructive measurement of the magnetic flux leakage at welding flaws, existing in a gas pipeline by Hall sensor. For measuring the magnetic flux leakage, we designed a reference specimen having four kinds of welding flaws. Magnetic flux leakage is measured around the welding flaws of the specimen. The possibility for classification of different kinds of welding flaws is carried out by means of the peak-peak value and the interval between peak-peak of the magnetic flux leakage.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.333-366
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• 2023

Rock as a mass generally exhibits discontinuities, commonly witnessed in rock slopes and underground structures like tunnels, rock pillars etc. When these discontinuities experiences loading, a new crack emerges from them which later propagates to a macro scale level of failure. The failure pattern is often influenced by the nature of discontinuity, geometry and loading conditions. The study of crack growth in rocks, namely its initiation and propagation, plays an important role in defining the true strength of rock and corresponding failure patterns. Many researchers have considered the length of the discontinuity to be fully persistent on rock or rock-like specimens by both experimental and numerical methods. However, only during recent decades, there has been a substantial growth in research interest with non-persistent discontinuities where the crack growth and its propagation phenomenon were found to be much more complex than persistent ones. The non-persistence fractures surface is generally considered to be open and closed. Compared to open flaws, there is a difference in crack growth behaviour in closed or narrow flaws due to the effect of surface closure between them. The present paper reviews the literature that has contributed towards studying the crack growth behaviour and its failure characteristics on both open and narrow flaws subjected to uniaxial and biaxial compression loading conditions.

• Magazine of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.161-171
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• 1999

Impact resonance testing was carried out on small and large concrete blocks containing several types of artificial flaws respectively. Quantitative analysis of the observed peak frequencies in the impact resonance tests identifies the possible normal modes of concrete blocks containing flaws. and enables to determine the depth and size of the flaws in concrete blocks. In this study, concrete can be treated as a homogeneous and isotropic material. The flaw size and location at each section of artificial flaw series in small and large concrete blocks, determined through two-dimensional scanning of impact point and real-time fast Fourier transform, are in good agreement with real size location, respectively. Consequently, quantitative analysis method of vibration modes in the impact resonance tests, which can be applied for homogeneous and isotropic material, can be useful for the detection of flaws in any case of small and large concrete blocks in this study.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.23-30
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• 1997

Recently high frequency ultrasonic transducers to employ polyvinylidene fluoride(PVDF) or polyvinylidene fluoride trifluoroethylene P(VDF-TrFE) have been used to detect small flaws in immersion testing. The detection field depending on the water path between the transducer and a specimen and the path in a tested specimen was measured using a PVDF transducer with nominal frequency 80MHz. Also, C-scan and B-scan were performed for the specimens made of Cr-Ni steel with the artificial flaws, the flat-bottom holes with diameter ranging from $50{\mu}m$ to $560{\mu}m$ at 12mm depth. As the result, the flaws with diameter larger than $280{\mu}m$ were detected, but the flaws with the ratio of diameter to wavelength smaller than about 0.48 were not detected. That the smaller flaws could not be detected was attributed to the attenuation of high frequency components in the steel specimens.

• Plant Journal
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.45-50
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• 2018

Nuclear safety law's amendment caused many problems to use radiography testing(RT). Phased array ultrasonic testing(PAUT) was adapted instead of RT for NDE of welding points in boiler tubes these days. Unfortunately, PAUT doesn't give us the discrimination characteristics about flaws distinction and flaws size clearly. In this thesis, the distinction characteristics of flaw types and the detection characteristics of flaw size using PAUT of welding points in boiler tubes were analyzed. It was concluded that PAUT can distinguish between planar flaws and rounded flaws, but it is hard to tell apart the types of flaw respectively. We paid attention to the discrimination of flaws size because PAUT tends to underestimate the flaw size of porosity and underestimate or overestimate the flaw size of porosity.