• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.366-372
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• 2001

The ice plugging process consists of placing liquid nitrogen around a pipe and removing heat until the water in the pipe freezes and provides a solid plug or seal against fluid movement. This technique enables us to repair or inspect a pipe system without shutdown of entire system. A set of test apparatus for investigation of the liquid freezing phenomena during ice plugging is prepared. This study shows the characteristics of the liquid freezing and the heat transfer with various pipe and freezing jacket conditions. And in case there is flow of the fluid inside the pipe, the flow rate which can be able to form the ice plug is identified with the effect of the pipe diameter and freezing jacket length on the plug formation. The permissible maximum flow rate for the complete plug formation is approximately proportional to the freezing jacket length at the same pipe diameter condition.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.105-116
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• 2002

In special industrial fields such 3s nuclear power plants and chemical plants, it is often necessary to repair system components without plant shutdown or drainage of system having many piping structures which may have hazardous or expensive fluid. A temporary ice plugging method for blocking internal flow is considered as a useful method in that case. According to the pipe freezing guideline of the nuclear power plant, the length of a freezing jacket must be longer than twice of the pipe diameter. However, for applying the ice plugging to short pipes which do not have enough freezing length because of geometrical configuration, it is inevitable to use shorter jacket less than twice of the pipe diameter. In this study, the integrity evaluation for short pipes in the nuclear power plant Is conducted by an experiment and the finite element analysis. From the results, the ice plugging process in short pipes can be safely carried out without any plastic deformation and fracture.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.227-237
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• 1998

In case the systems have radioactivity, toxic liquid or expensive fluid, and have to be performed repair work at one point of the system pipe, the formation of an internal ice plug by the removal of heat from the pipe is often consideredas a useful method. In this procedure, an annular jacket is placed around the pipe, and the jacket is then filled with liquid Nitrogen(-196.deg. C). Thermal analysis by the finite element method based on the laboratory experiments has been constructed. The result of the finite element analysis on the experimental model shows to be reasonable, and thus the finite element analysis for different pipe size, material and thickness has been performed to see if the ice plugging procedure in various applications can be safely performed without possibility of damage to the pipe. It has been confirmed that in carbon steel pipes the maximum stress is found around the boundary of the freezing jacket, and the stress increases as pipe thickness increases, but the maximum stress shows no consistency along the increment of the pipe diameter. The maximum stresses appear lower than yield stress in carbon steel. It has been also shown that in stainless steel pipes the maximum stresses are also found around the boundary of the freezing jacket, but almost the same value in spite of different pipe size an thickness, and the maximum stresses show slightly higher than the yield stress of the stainless steel.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.105-112
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• 2017

A lot of piping systems have been used from nuclear power systems to water supply systems. The maintenance of the piping systems is needed to ensure proper operation of the piping systems. Failure of the large pipe systems especially such as KDHC(Korea District Heating Corporation) can be a matter directly related to the enterprise productivity and profitability. It can also lead to very important issues in promoting public safety and convenience. Therefore a method of quick and safety repairs have been emerged as the most important problem. In this study, freezing seal isolation method using liquid nitrogen cryogenic refrigerant was developed for the maintenance of a pre insulated heat transport pipe of KDHC with a diameter of 300 mm. In this study, by employing computational analysis techniques we performed the flow and heat transfer analysis for the targeted pre insulated heat transfer pipe and freezing seal jacket(ice-Plug) and have selected for optimal system. The detailed design model based on the results of the computational analysis finally was produced. A laboratory-scale test apparatus were designed and the freezing seal isolation self-test carried out. Also the performance assessment tests in the test bed of KDHC were carried out for on-site application.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.336-342
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• 2012

Large-scale active solar heat systems are generally using heat exchanger between collector and storage tank loops to prevent damage by freezing. It is difficult to maintain stratification in a storage tank in the system owing to greater flow rate enhancing heat transfer. In the previous study, we introduced a spiral-jacketed storage tank and obtained good results to keep system performance of general level without better stratification. We added a scroll-shaped heat exchanger coil on the upper part in the spiral-jacketed storage tank. As a result of the experiment, it was verified that degree of stratification of the new type storage tank is higher than that of the previous one with a possibility of better collector efficiency and solar fraction.