• 한국압력기기공학회 논문집
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• 제10권1호
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• pp.64-69
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• 2014

Gr. 91 steel is used for the major structural components of Generation-IV reactor systems, such as a very high temperature reactor(VHTR) and sodium-cooled fast reactor(SFR). Since these structures are designed for up to 60 years at elevated temperatures, the prediction of long-term creep life is important for a design application of Gr. 91 steel. In this study, a number of creep rupture data were collected through world-wide literature surveys, and using these data, the long-term creep life was predicted in terms of three methods: the single-C method in Larson-Miller(L-M) parameter, multi-C constant method in the L-M parameter, and a modified method("sinh" equation) in the L-M parameter. The results of the creep-life prediction were compared using the standard deviation of error value, respectively. Modified method proposed by the "sinh" equation revealed better agreement in creep life prediction than the single-C L-M method.

• 한국압력기기공학회 논문집
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.62-70
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• 2019

The APR1400 reactor may be operated for a long time under high temperature and pressure conditions, causing damage to the stud holes and causing stud bolts and holes to stick. The present practice is to manually remove the anti-sticking agent and foreign matter remaining in the APR1400 reactor stud hole and to visually check the surface condition of the thread to check the damage status of the threads. In the case of the APR1400 reactor stud holes, manually cleaning the threads increases the risk of radiation exposure and operator's fatigue. To avoid this, the autonomous mobile robot is used to automatically clean the reactor stud holes. The purpose of this study is to optimize the cleaning performance of the mobile robot by looking at the behavior of the surface roughness of the stud surface cleaned by the brush attached to the mobile robot due to changes in brush material, thickness of wire, and rotation speed. A microscopic approach to the surface roughness of the flank is needed to investigate the effects of the newly proposed brush of the autonomous mobile robot on the thread holes. According to this experiment, it is reasonable to use STS brush rather than Carbon one. Optimal operating conditions are derived and the safety of APR1400 reactor stud holes maintenance can be improved.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제33권5호
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• pp.526-538
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• 2001

Fatigue tests in air and in room temperature water were performed to obtain comparable data and stable crack measuring conditions. In air environment, fatigue crack growth rate was increased with increasing temperature due to an increase in crack tip oxidation rate. In room temperature water, the fatigue crack growth rate was faster than in air and crack path varied on loading conditions. In simulated light water reactor (LWR) conditions, there was little environmental effect on the fatigue crack growth rate (FCGR) at low dissolved oxygen or at high loading frequency conditions. While the FCGR was enhanced at high oxygen condition, and the enhancement of crack growth rate increased as loading frequency decreased to a critical value. In fractography, environmentally assisted cracks, such as semi-cleavage and secondary intergranular crack, were found near sulfide inclusions only at high dissolved oxygen and low loading frequency condition. The high crack growth rate was related to environmentally assisted crack. These results indicated that environmentally assisted crack could be formed by the Electrochemical effect in specific loading condition.

• 대한금속재료학회지
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• 제47권9호
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• pp.533-541
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• 2009

Materials used for a reactor pressure vessel(RPV) are required high strength and toughness, which determine the safety margin and life of a reactor. Ni-Mo-Cr low alloy steel shows better mechanical properties than existing RPV steels due to higher Ni and Cr contents compared to the existing RPV steels. The present study focuses on effects of Ni, Cr contents on the cleavage fracture toughness of Ni-Mo-Cr low alloy steels in the transition temperature region. The fracture toughness was characterized by a 3-point bend test of precracked Charpy V-notch(PCVN) specimens based on ASTM E1921-08. The test results indicated that the fracture toughness was considerably improved with an increase of Ni and Cr contents. Especially, control of Cr content was more effective in improving fracture toughness than manipulating Ni content, though Charpy impact toughness was changed more extensively by adjusting Ni content. These differences between changes in the fracture toughness and that in the impact toughness were derived from microstructural features, such as martensite lath size and carbide precipitation behavior.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권9호
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• pp.3493-3505
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• 2023

Reactor containment buildings serve as the last barrier to prevent radioactive leakage due to accidents and their safety is crucial in overpressurization conditions. Thus, the Regulatory Guide (RG) 1.216 has mentioned the global strain as one of failure criteria in the free-field for cylindrical prestressed concrete containment vessels (PCCV) subject to internal pressure. However, there is a limit that RG 1.216 shows the free-field without the specific locations of failure criteria and also the global strain corresponding to only azimuth 135° has been mentioned in NUREG/CR-6685, regardless of the elevations of the structure. Therefore, in order to reevaluate the failure criteria of the 1:4 scaled PCCV, the high fidelity simulation model based on the experimental test was significantly validated in this study, and it was interesting to find that the experimental and numerical result was very close to each other. In addition, for the consideration of the material uncertainties, the Latin hypercube method was used as a statistical approach. Consequently, it was revealed that the radial displacements of various azimuth area such as 120°, 135°, 150°, 180° and 210° at elevations 4680 mm and 6,200 mm can represent as the global deformation at the free-field, obtained from the statistical approach.

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2001년도 춘계학술대회논문집E
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• pp.57-62
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• 2001

Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) launched an intermediate scale steam explosion experiment named Test for Real cOrium Interaction with water (TROI) using reactor material to investigate whether the corium would lead to energetic steam explosion when interacted with cold water at low pressure. The melt-water interaction is confined in a pressure vessel with the multi-dimensional fuel and water pool geometry. The cold crucible technology, where the mixture of powder in a water-cooled cage is heated by high frequency induction, is employed. In this paper, results of the first series of tests ($TROI-1{\sim}5$) were discussed. The ZrO2 jets with 5kg mass and 5cm diameter were poured into the 67cm deep water pool at $30{\sim}95^{\circ}C$. Either spontaneous steam explosions or quenching was observed. The morphology of debris and pressure wave profiles clearly indicates the each case.

• 한국원자력학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국원자력학회 1999년도 춘계학술발표회요약집
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• pp.124-124
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• 1999

An ultrasonic method is developed for the measurement of the two-phase mixture level in the reactor vessel or steam generator. The ultrasonic method is selected among the several non¬nuelear two-phase mixture level measurement methods through two steps of selection procedure. A commercial ultrasonic level measurement method is modified for application into the high temperature, pressure, and other conditions. The calculation method of the ultrasonic velocity is modified to consider the medium as the homogeneous mixture of air and steam. and to be applied into the high temperature and pressure conditions. The cross-correlation technique is adopted as a detection method to reduce the effects of the attenuation and the dif.JUsed reflection caused by suface fluctuation. The waveguides are developed to reduce the loss of echo and to remove the effects of obstructs. The present experimental study shows that the developed ultrasonic method measures the two-phase mixture level more accurately than the conventional methods do.

• 대한용접접합학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한용접접합학회 2010년도 춘계학술발표대회 초록집
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• pp.43-46
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• 2010

As the nuclear power plant has been constructed continuously for several decades in Korea, the welding technology for components manufacturing and installation has been improved largely. Standardization for weld test and qualification was also established systematically according to the concerned code. The welding for the main components requires the high reliability to keep the constant quality level, which means the repeatability of weld quality. Therefore the weld process qualified by thorough test and evaluation is able to be applied for manufacturing. Narrow gap SAW and GTAW process are usually applied for girth seam welding of pressure vessel like Reactor vessel, steam generator, and etc. For the surface cladding with stainless steel and Inconel material, strip welding process is mainly used. Inside cladding of nozzles is additionally applied with Hot wire GTAW and semi-auto welding process. Especially the weld joint having elliptical weld line on curved surface needs a specialized weld system which is automatically rotating with adjusting position of the head torch. The small sized pipe, tube, and internal parts of reactor vessel requests precise weld processes like an automatic GTAW and electron beam welding. Welding of dissimilar materials including Inconel690 material has high possibility of weld defects like a lack of fusion, various types of crack. To avoid these kinds of problem, optimum weld parameters and sequence should be set up through the many tests. As the life extension of nuclear power plant is general trend, weld technologies having higher reliability is required gradually. More development of specialized welding systems, weld part analysis and evaluation, and life prediction for main components should be taken into a consideration extensively.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제35권5호
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• pp.497-505
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• 2003

This paper describes a computational approach to the quantification of primary damage under irradiation and demonstrates the effect of neutron energy spectra on the formation of the displacement cascade. The development of displacement cascades in ${\alpha}-Iron$ has been simulated using the MOLDY code - a molecular dynamics code for simulating radiation damage. The primary knock-on atom energy, key input to the MOLDY code, was determined from the SPECTER code calculation on two neutron spectra. The two neutron spectra include; (i) neutron spectrum in the instrumented irradiation capsule of the high-flux advanced neutron application reactor (HANARO), and (ii) neutron spectrum at the inner surface of the reactor pressure vessel steel for the Younggwang nuclear power plant No.5 (YG 5). Minor differences in the normalized neutron spectra between the two spectra produce similar values of PKA energy, which are 4.7 keV for HANARO and 5.3 keV for YG 5. This similarity implies that primary damage to the components of the commercial nuclear reactors should be well simulated by irradiation in the HANARO. Moreover, the application of the MD calculations corroborates this statement by comparing cascades simulation results.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제40권2호
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• pp.117-126
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• 2008

In this paper, a new reactor core design is proposed on the basis of a mixed core concept consisting of a thermal zone and a fast zone. The geometric structure of the fuel assembly of the thermal zone is similar to that of a conventional thermal supercritical water-cooled reactor(SCWR) core with two fuel pin rows between the moderator channels. In spite of the counter-current flow mode, the co-current flow mode is used to simplify the design of the reactor core and the fuel assembly. The water temperature at the exit of the thermal zone is much lower than the water temperature at the outlet of the pressure vessel. This lower temperature reduces the maximum cladding temperature of the thermal zone. Furthermore, due to the high velocity of the fast zone, a wider lattice can be used in the fuel assembly and the nonuniformity of the local heat transfer can be minimized. This mixed core, which combines the merits of some existing thermal SCWR cores and fast SCWR cores, is proposed for further detailed analysis.