• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제40권3호
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• pp.239-250
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• 2008

If there is a water flow with a range of temperature inside a pipe, the wanner water tends to float on top of the cooler water because it is lighter, resulting in the upper portion of the pipe being hotter than the lower portion. Under these conditions, such thermal stratification can play an important role in the aging of nuclear power plant piping because of the stress caused by the temperature difference and the cyclic temperature changes. This stress can limit the lifetime of the piping, even leading to penetrating cracks. Investigated in this study is the effect of thermal stratification on the structural integrity of the pressurizer surge line, which is reported to be one of the pipes most severely affected. Finite element models of the surge line are developed using several element types available in a general purpose structural analysis program and stress analyses are performed to determine the response characteristics for the various types of top-to-bottom temperature differentials due to thermal stratification. Fatigue analyses are also performed and an allowable environmental correction factor is suggested.

• 한국압력기기공학회 논문집
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• 제17권2호
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• pp.83-89
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• 2021

The thickness of pipe can be locally reduced during operation due to wall thinning. Due to its significance on structural integrity, many non-destructive detecting techniques and assessment methods are available. In this study, the elastic bending compliance of local wall-thinned pipe is presented in terms of the wall thinning geometry: wall thinning depth, circumferential angle and longitudinal length. Elastic finite element (FE) analysis further shows that the presented equation can be used for any wall thinning shape. The proposed solution differs from FE results by less than 6% for all cases analyzed. The bending compliance increases linearly with increasing longitudinal thinning length and non-linearly with increasing thinning angle and depth.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제34권2호
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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.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제56권4호
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• pp.1320-1329
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• 2024

When wall-thinning occurs in nuclear Class 2 and 3 pipes, reinforcement is typically applied rather than replacement. To analyze the structural integrity of reinforced wall-thinned pipe, stress analysis results using full 3-D FE analysis are not compatible to the design code equation, ASME BPVC Sec. III NC/ND-3650. Therefore, the efficient stress evaluation method for the reinforced wall-thinned pipe, compatible to the design code equation, needs to be developed. In this paper, stress evaluation methods for the reinforced wall-thinned pipe are proposed using the equivalent straight pipe concept. Furthermore, for fatigue analysis of the reinforced wall-thinned pipe, the stress intensification factor of reinforced wall-thinned pipe is presented using the structural stress method given in ASME BPVC Sec. VIII Div.2.

• 대한용접접합학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한용접접합학회 2006년 추계학술발표대회 개요집
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• pp.283-285
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• 2006

Non Destructive Examination for welds is one of the most important processes to ensure the integrity of facilities of Nuclear power plants. An automated ultrasonic testing program is developed for welding inspection. A test block with side EDM notch is inspected with this program. This paper shows that the developed automated ultrasonic testing program is quite effective.

• 한국압력기기공학회 논문집
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• 제16권1호
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• pp.65-73
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• 2020

Integrity evaluations on a platen superheater were conducted as per ASME Section VIII Division 2(hereafter 'ASME VIII(2)') which was originally used for design with implicit consideration of creep effects. A platen superheater subjected to severe loading conditions of high pressure and high temperature at creep regime in a supercritical thermal plant in Korea was chosen for present study. Additional evaluations were conducted as per nuclear-grade high-temperature design rule of RCC-MRx that takes creep effects into account explicitly. Comparisons of the two results from ASME VIII(2) and RCC-MRx were conducted to quantify the conservatism of ASME VIII(2). From present analyses, it was shown that the design evaluation results exceeded allowable limits of RCC-MRx for the plant design conditions although limits of ASME VIII(2) were satisfied regardless of operation time, which means that design as per ASME VIII(2) might be potentially non-conservative in case of operation in creep range. A high-temperature design evaluation program as per RCC-MRx, called 'HITEP_RCC-MRx' has been used and it was shown that pressure boundary components can be designed reliably with the program especially for the loading conditions of long-term creep conditions.

• 한국압력기기공학회 논문집
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• 제16권1호
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• pp.100-109
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• 2020

Pipelines subjected to ground movement would be easily exposed to large-scale deformation. Since such deformations may cause the pipeline failure, it is important to ensure the safety of pipelines in various operation conditions. However, crack in weld metal have been considered as one of the main causes that can deteriorate the structural integrity of the pipeline. For this reason, the structural integrity of the pipe containing the crack in the weld should be obtained. In order to assess cracked pipe, J-integral and crack-tip opening displacement(CTOD) have been applied widely as the elastic-plastic fracture mechanics parameters representing crack driving force. In this study, engineering solutions to calculate the J-integral and CTOD of pipes with a circumferential outer surface crack in the weld are proposed. For this purpose, 3-dimensional elastic-plastic finite element(FE) analyses have been performed considering the effect of overmatch and width of weld. The shape of the weld was simplified to I-groove, and axial displacement was employed as for loading condition. Based on FE results, the effects of crack size, material properties and width of weldment on J-integral and CTOD were investigated. Additionally, the J-integral and CTOD for I-groove were compared with those for V-groove to examine the effects of the weld shape, and a proportionality coefficient of J-integral and CTOD was calculated from the results of this paper.

• 한국생산제조학회지
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• 제22권3_1spc호
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• pp.518-524
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• 2013

Recently, probabilistic assessments of nuclear power plant components have generated interest in the nuclear industries, either for the efficient inspection and maintenance of older nuclear plants or for improving the safety and cost-effective design of newly constructed nuclear plants. In the present paper, the partial safety factor (PSF) of wall-thinned nuclear piping is evaluated based on a reliability index method, from which the effect of each statistical variable (assessment parameter) on a certain target probability is evaluated. In order to calculate the PSF of a wall-thinned pipe, a limit state function based on the load and resistance factor design (LRFD) concept is first constructed. As for the reliability assessment method, both the advanced first-order second moment (AFOSM) method and second-order reliability method (SORM) are employed to determine the PSF of each probabilistic variable. The present results can be used for developing maintenance strategies considering the priorities of input variables for structural integrity assessments of wall-thinned piping, and this PSF concept can also be applied to the optimal design of the components of newly constructed plants considering the target reliability levels.

• 한국압력기기공학회 논문집
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• 제17권2호
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• pp.119-125
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• 2021

Subsea pipelines are widely used to transport hydrocarbons from ultra-deep seawater to facilities on the coast. A sandwich pipe is a pipe-in-pipe system in which the annulus between the two concentric steel pipes is filled with polymer cores and fillers for insulation and structural reinforcement. Sandwich pipeline is always exposed to complex loading such as bending moment, bulking, internal and external pressures caused by installation, operation and environmental factors. This research provides insights into the structural integrity of sandwich pipeline exposed to complex loading conditions using a linear matching method (LMM). The finite element model of the sandwich pipeline has been generated from previous research, and the model validation is performed by comparing the results of the linear analysis between the two models. The temperature dependent material properties are used to simulate the behavior of real pipeline, and the elastic-perfectly plastic (EPP) model has been taken into account for the material non-linearity. Numerical results provide comprehensive insights into the structural response of the sandwich pipeline under monotonic and cyclic loading and provide notable points about the evaluation of the plastic collapse limit and the elastic shakedown limit of the sandwich pipeline.

• 한국압력기기공학회 논문집
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• 제18권1호
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• pp.19-25
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• 2022

Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) should be designed to have sufficient safety margins and to ensure seismic safety against earthquake that may occur during the plant life time. After the 9.12 Gyeongju earthquake accident, the structural integrity of nuclear power plants due to the beyond design basis earthquake is one of key safety issues. Accordingly, it is necessary to conduct structural integrity evaluations for domestic NPPs under beyond design basis earthquake. In this study, the Level 3 LBB (Leak Before Break) evaluation was performed by considering the beyond design basis earthquake for the surge line of a OPR1000 plant of which design basis earthquake was set to be 0.2g. The beyond design basis earthquake corresponding to peak ground acceleration 0.4g at the maximum stress point of the surge line was considered. It was confirmed that the moment behaviors of the hot leg and pressurized surge nozzle were lower than the maximum allowable loading in moment-rotation curve. It was also confirmed that the LBB margin could be secured by comparing the LBB margin through the Level 2 method. It was judged that the margin was secured by reducing the load generated through the compliance of the pipe.