• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.869-874
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• 2014

It was discovered in a Korean PWR that an extensive number of very short and shallow cracks in the SG tubes were undetectable by eddy current in-service-inspection because of the masking effect of sludge deposits. Axial stress corrosion cracks at the outside diameter of the steam generator tubes near the line contacts with the tube support plates are the major concern among the six identical Korean nuclear power plants having CE-type steam generators with Alloy 600 high temperature mill annealed tubes, HU3&4 and HB3~6. The tubes in HB3&4 have a less susceptible microstructure so that the onset of ODSCC was substantially delayed compared to HU3&4 whose tubes are most susceptible to ODSCC among the six units. The numbers of cracks detected by the eddy current inspection jumped drastically after the steam generators of HB4 were chemically cleaned. The purpose of the chemical cleaning was to mitigate stress corrosion cracking by removing the heavy sludge deposit, since a corrosive environment is formed in the occluded region under the sludge deposit. SGCC also enhances the detection capability of the eddy current inspection at the same time. Measurement of the size of each crack using the motorized rotating pancake coil probe indicated that the cracks in HB4 were shorter and substantially shallower than the cracks in HU3&4. It is believed that the cracks were shorter and shallower because the microstructure of the tubes in HB4 is less susceptible to ODSCC. It was readily understood from the size distribution of the cracks and the quantitative information available on the probability of detection that most cracks in HB4 had been undetected until the steam generators were chemically cleaned.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.131-152
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• 2015

Easy detection and evaluation of defect in the tube structure is a continuous problem and remains a significant demand in tube inspection technologies. This study is aimed to automate defect detection using the pattern recognition approach based on the classification of high frequency stress wave signals. The stress wave signals from vibrational impact excitation on several tube conditions were captured to identify the defect in ASTM A179 seamless steel tubes. The variation in stress wave propagation was captured by a high frequency sensor. Stress wave signals from four tubes with artificial defects of different depths and one reference tube were classified using the autoregressive (AR) algorithm. The results were demonstrated using a dendrogram. The preliminary research revealed the natural arrangement of stress wave signals were grouped into two clusters. The stress wave signals from the healthy tube were grouped together in one cluster and the signals from the defective tubes were classified in another cluster. This approach was effective in separating different stress wave signals and allowed quicker and easier defect identification and interpretation in steel tubes.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.08a
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• pp.403-406
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• 2006

A new medical X-ray PIV technique was developed using a conventional medical X-ray tube. To acquire images of micro-scale particles, the X-ray PIV system consists of an x-ray CCD camera with high spatial resolution, and a X-ray tube with small a focal spot. A new X-ray exposure control device was developed using a rotating disc shutter to make double pulses which are essential for PIV application. Synchronization methodology was also developed to apply the PIV technique to a conventional medical X-ray tube. In order to check the performance and usefulness of the developed X-ray PIV technique, it was applied to a glycerin flow in an opaque silicon tube. Tungsten particles which have high X-ray absorption coefficient were used as tracer particles. Through this preliminary test, the spatial resolution was found to be higher than ultrafast MRI techniques, and the temporal resolution was higher than conventional X-ray PIV techniques. By improving its performance further and developing more suitable tracers, this medical X-ray PIV technique will have strong potential in the fields of medical imaging or nondestructive inspection as well as diagnosis of practical thermo-fluid flows.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.187-193
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• 2015

The STS310S tube has excellent heat transfer ability and is widely used as the material for heat transfer tubes in heat exchange devices. Mixtures of gas and water flow inside the tube whereas hot flame flows outside it. In this environment, the material of the tube may undergo embrittlement, which can cause leakage. Cracks can propagate from the inside of the tube to its outside and result in brittle fracture. This study identified the cause of brittle fracture in the STS310S tube through experiments and discussion, and proposed solutions to prevent fracture.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.353-361
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• 2004

Propagation of the guided waves in a steam generator (SG) tube was investigated. Dispersion curves and the incident angles corresponding to the specific modes were calculated for the SG tube. The modes of guided wave were identified by time-frequency diagrams obtained by short time Fourier transform. Group velocities were also determined from the time-frequency diagrams obtained at the different separations of transducers. In experiment. distinct mode conversion was not observed when the guided ultrasound passed curved region of the S/G tube. The optimum mode of guided wave for the inspection of SG tube was suggested and verified by experiments.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.24 no.1 s.173
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• pp.206-214
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• 2000

The pressure tube is a major component of the CANDU reactor, which supports nuclear fuel bundle and it's containment vessel. If a flaw is found during the periodic inspection from the pressure tube s. the integrity evaluation must be carried out. and the safety requirements must be satisfied for continued service. In order to complete the integrity evaluation, complicated and iterative calculation procedures are required. Besides, a lot of data and knowledge for the evaluation are required for the entire: integrity evaluation process. For this reason. an integrity evaluation system, which provides efficient of evaluation with the help of attached databases, was developed. The developed system was built on the basis of ASME Sec. XI and FFSG(Fitness For Service Guidelines for zirconium alloy pressure tubes in operating CANDU reactors) issued by the AECL, and covers the delayed hydride cracking(DHC). This system does not only provide various databases including the 3-D finite element analysis results on pressure tubes, inspection data and design specifications but also is compatible with other commercial database software. In order to verify the developed system, several case studies have been performed and the results were compared with those from AECL. A good agreement was observed between those two results.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.187-192
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• 2002

The open-connect type eddy current transducer for the flaw detection in continuously connected pipelines was developed. This eddy current transducer is for the on-line inspection of the tubes in industries, to which commercial encircling probes are not applicable. The excitation coil that consists of a ribbon type cable and a flat connector can be opened and closed on purpose. The sensing coils of this transducer are circumferentially arrayed near the outside of the tube wall but axially displaced from the exciter by about one and half tube diameter. In application to steel tubes, and the performance of this transducer was evaluated as a little behind those of magnetic saturation type in signal to noise ratio and flaw size decision, but usable to detect or to locate large size flaws in steel tubes. Surface cracks deeper than 19% of the tube thickness could be detected with good signal to noise ratio.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.9-18
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• 2014

Interface behavior and confining effects of concrete-infilled steel tube (CFT) composite beam were investigate based on the experimental observations and numerical analyses. For this purpose, laboratory four-points bending tests were performed for the two test specimens of 1,000mm long CFT composite beams. The test beams were made of ${\phi}110mm$ and 4.5mm thick steel tube and 10mm thick steel web and bottom flange. Therefore, concrete infilled in steel tube was in compression through the entire cross section due to the web and bottom flange. Two end section conditions, with end section cap and without end section cap, were considered in experiments to monitor the relative slip displacement at ends and induce confining effects at center. In numerical aspects, finite element analysis considering steel-concrete interface behavior was performed and compared to the experimental results.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.95-102
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• 2011

The CFT columns used in thin-walled steel tubes can be more economical, because it was expected the increase of strength by restriction for the local buckling of steel tubes. The purpose of this paper is to review feasibility of existing design formula and verify the applicability limit of width-to-thickness ratio for increasing the strength of rectangular CFT columns. As the main parameters of experiments, width-to-thickness ratios of steel tube, height of rectangular concrete columns, and concrete filled or not. The strength of concrete are selected to 90MPa. From the test results, the confinement effect of steel tube on the compressive strength of infilled concrete is remarkably appeared in the thin-walled rectangular steel tube columns infilled wih high strength concrete. By the non-linear analysis, the axial strength from experiment result was given higher than analysis result for all CFT stub columns.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.25-32
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• 2023

In this study, a double wall system is introduced, which was invented to simplify the complicated manufacturing process of the existing precast concrete (PC) double wall systems and to remove defects such as laitance that may occur during the production of concrete panels. An experimental study was conducted to investigate the tensile resisting capacity of the steel tube which is embedded in the precast concrete panel to keep the spacing between PC panels and to prevent damage of the PC panels during transportation and casting concrete onsite. The experiment was planned to determine the detail of effective steel tube connection considering the steel plate treatment method according to the formation of the opening, the presence of embedded concrete, and the reinforcement welding for additional dowel action as key variables. As a result, the ultimate tensile strength increased by 20-30% compared to the control specimen (ST) except for the steel tube specimen (ST_CP) which has steel plates bent inward at the end part of the steel tube. Since the specimen (ST_CON) filled with concrete inside the control specimen has no additional process and cost for the steel tube connections compared to the control specimen during the production of the developed double wall system, it is determined to be the appropriate detail of steel tube connection.