• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.67-73
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• 2001

Three dimensional, elastic-plastic finite element(FE) analyses for circumferential through-wall cracked pipes under combined tension and bending are performed using actual tensile data of stainless steel, for two purposes. The first one is to validate the recently-proposed enhanced reference stress (ERS) method to estimate the J-integral and COD for circumferential through-wall cracked pipes under combined tension and bending. The second one is to compare those results with the GE/EPRI estimations. The FE results of the J-integral and the COD, resulting from six cases of proportional and non-proportional combined tension and bending, compare very well with those estimated from the proposed method. Excellent agreements of the proposed method with the detailed FE results provide sufficient confidence in the use of the proposed method to the Leak-Before-Break(LBB) analysis of through-wall cracked pipes under combined tension and bending.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.21 no.11
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• pp.1786-1795
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• 1997

In order to perform leak-before-break design of nuclear piping systems and integrity evaluation of reactor vessels, full stress-strain curves and fracture resistance (J-R) curves are required. However it is time-consuming and expensive to obtain J-R curves experimentally. The objective of this paper is to modify two J-R curve prediction methods previously proposed by the authors and to propose an additional J-R curve prediction method for nuclear piping materials. In the first method which is based on the elastic-plastic finite element analysis, a blunting region handling procedure is added to the existing method. In the second method which is based on the empirical equation, a revised general equation is proposed to apply to both carbon steel and stainless steel. Finally, in the third method, both full stress-strain curve and finite element analysis results are used for J-R curve prediction. A good agreement between the predicted results based on the proposed methods and the experimental ones is obtained.

• International Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology Speciallssue:Selected Papers
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.44-50
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• 2001

Existing surface defects in structural members often act as sites of fatigue crack initiation, and if undetected, these cracks may grow through the thickness of the member, leading to catastrophic failure of the structure. Thus, in-service monitoring of fatigue cracks through reliable and effective nondestructive techniques is an important ingredient in the leak-before-break (LBB) design and safe operation of defects critical structures. An advanced, waveform-based, acoustic emission (AE) technique has been used in this paper to study the characteristics of the signals emanating from the initiation, growth and through-the -thickness penetration of surface fatigue crack in a 6061 aluminum plate. The goal of this experimental study is to determine whether the evolution of the fatigue crocks could be identified from the properties of the waveforms produced during the tests. The AE waveform signals detected at different stages of crack growth was found to have different temporal and spectral characteristics. The data analysis technique presented here can be applied to real-time monitoring of the initiation and propagation of fatigue cracks in structural components.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.741-747
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• 2001

Three-dimensional, elastic-plastic finite element analyses for circumferential through-wall cracked pipes are performed using actual tensile data of stainless steels, for two purposes. The first one is to validate the recently-proposed enhanced reference stress (ERS) method to estimate the J-integral and COD for circumferential through-wall cracked pipes. The second one is to compare those results with the GE/EPRI estimations. It is found that the J-integral and COD estimations according to the GE/EPRI method can be very sensitive to how the stress-strain data are fitted using the Ramberg-Osgood relation. Moreover, no tendency can be found regarding the most appropriate fitting range for the Ramberg-Osgood fit. On the contrary, the J-integral and COD estimations based on the ERS method give more accurate results than the GE/EPRI estimation. The present results provide confidence in applying the proposed method to the Leak-Before-Break(LBB) analysis.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.24 no.11
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• pp.2796-2803
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• 2000

For traditional Leak-Before-Break(LBB) analyses, symmetric conditions were assumed for a pipe-nozzle interface to simplify the analysis in calculating J-integral. However. this assumption could result in an overly conservative design criteria for a pipe-nozzle interface, Since the pipe-nozzle interface is asymmetric due to the difference of stiffness between pipe and nozzle, it is required to develop a new methodology considering the nozzle effect. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the effect of nozzle no the development of LBB design criteria for nuclear pipings. For this purpose, extensive finite element analysis were performed to evaluate the effect of nozzle on Crack Opening Area(COA), Detectable Leakage Crack(DLC) length and J-integral values. In conclusion, it was proven that the application of LBB concept could be extended for more nuclear piping system by considering the nozzle.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.287-292
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• 2008

The applicability of stainless steel type 316N to the PZR surge-lines of OPR1000 and APR1400 is investigated. So far, strainless steel type 347 has been used for the OPR1000 surge-lines. The degree of improvement in the leak-before-break(LBB) and component design margin is evaluated when stainless steel type 347 is substituted by type 316N. For the study, the tensile and J-R tests on type 316N and type 347 stainless steels were performed at 316 and the microstructure of both types was examined. Stainless steel type 316N shows the higher values on the stress-strain curves, J-R curves and stress intensity, Sm, compared to those of type 347. Therefore, stainless steel type 316N ensures the higher LBB and component design margins. As a result, this study shows that stainless steel type 316N could substitute type 347 for the surge-lines of OPR1000 and APR1400.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.77-87
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• 2000

It is reported that the toughness and safety margins of the SA106 Gr.C main steam line piping steel is reduced due to dynamic strain aging (DSA) at the reactor operating temperature for Leak-Before-Break (LBB) application. In this study, intercritical annealing in two-phase ($\alpha$+${\gamma}$）region was performed to investigate the possibility of improving the toughness and reducing DSA susceptibility. The manifestations of DSA were still observed in the tensile tests of the annealed specimens. However, the ductility loss caused by DSA was smaller than that in the as-received material. Furthermore, the intercritical annealing was able to increase the Charpy impact toughness by 1.5 times compared to as-received. With the heat treatment, we could obtain microstructural changes such as the cleaner retained ferrite, increased ferrite content and somewhat finer grain size. It is considered that the reduced DSA was induced by cleaner retained ferrite, which in turn resulted in higher impact toughness in addition to the general toughening due to finer grain sizes and increased ferrite content.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.352-361
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• 2004

One important element of the Leak-Before-Break analysis of nuclear piping is how to determine relevant fracture toughness (or the J-resistance curve) for nonlinear fracture mechanics analysis. The practice to use fracture toughness from a standard C(T) specimen is known to often give conservative estimates of toughness. To improve the accuracy, this paper proposes a new method to determine fracture toughness using a nonstandard testing specimen, curved wide-plate in tension. To show validity of the proposed curved wide-plate test, the J-resistance curve from the full-scale pipe test is compared with that from the curved wide-plate test and that from the C(T) specimen. It is shown that the J-resistance curve form the curved wide-plate tension test is similar to, but that from the C(T) specimen is lower than, the J-resistance curve from the full-scale pipe test. Further validation is performed by investigating crack-tip constraint conditions via detailed 3-D FE analyses, which shows that the crack-tip constraint condition in the curved wide-plate tension specimen is indeed similar to that in the full-scale pipe under bending.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.9
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• pp.3528-3535
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• 2024

SA508 Gr.1A low-alloy steel is being considered as a candidate material for main steam line piping in nuclear power plants. Therefore, improving its strength and toughness is essential for enhancing the leak-before-break (LBB) margin. In this study, six types of model alloys were fabricated by varying the contents of microalloying elements (C, Cu, B, Ti, and Nb) to enhance the mechanical properties of the specimens. The addition of a few ppm of B led to the formation of a fine-grained low-temperature transformation microstructure, resulting in the highest strength among the model alloys. However, the addition of Nb and Ti increased the formation of coarse ferrite, significantly decreasing the strength of the alloys. Reducing the C content while adding a small amount of B simultaneously maintained strength and enhanced toughness. Furthermore, the LBB margins of model alloys and commercial steel were evaluated to validate the influence of varying microalloying content. The model alloys exhibited a substantial increase in yield strength and fracture resistance, resulting in a more than 10% increase in the LBB margin. Notably, the LBB margin of the alloy with 15 ppm B was 1.39, approximately 25% higher than that of commercial steels.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.553-560
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• 2015

Fracture mechanics analysis for cracked pipes is essential for applying the leak-before-break (LBB) concept to nuclear piping design. For LBB assessment, crack instability and leak rate should be predicted accurately for through-wall cracked pipes. In a nuclear piping system, elbows are connected with straight pipes by circumferential welding; this weld region is often considered a critical location. Hence, accurate crack assessment is necessary for cracks in the interface between elbows and straight pipes. In this study, the stress intensity factor (SIF) and elastic crack opening displacement (COD) were estimated through detailed 3D elastic finite element (FE) analyses. Based on the results, closed-form solutions of shape factors for calculating the SIFs and elastic CODs were proposed for circumferential through-wall cracks in the abovementioned interfaces under internal pressure. In addition, the effect of the elbow on shape factors was investigated by comparing the results with the existing solutions for a straight pipe.