• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.2017-2022
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• 2004

There are multistage preheaters in the power generation plan to improve the thermal efficiency of the plant and to prevent the components from the thermal shock. The energy source of these heaters comes from the extracted two phase fluid of working system. These two-phase fluid can cause the so-called Flow Accelerated Corrosion(FAC) in the extracting piping and the bubble plate of the heater for example, in case of point Beach Nuclear Power Plant and in the Wolsung Nuclear Power Plant. The FAC is due to the mass transport of the thin oxide layer by the convection. FAC is dependent on many parameters such as the operation temperature, void fraction, the fluid velocity and pH of fluid and so on. Therefore, in this paper velocity was calculated by FLUENT code in order to find out the root cause of the wall thinning of the feedwater heaters. It also includeed in the fluid mixing analysis model are around the number 5A feedwater heater shell including the extraction pipeline. To identify the relation between the local velocities and wall thinning, the local velocities according to the analysis results were compared with distribution of the shell wall thicknes by ultrasonic test.

• Journal of ILASS-Korea
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.24-30
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• 2004

Feedwater flowing tube side of number 5 high pressure feedwatrr heaters was heated by extracting steam from high pressure turbine and draining water from moisture separators and number 6 high pressure feedwater heaters and supplied into steam generators. Because the extracting steam from the high pressure turbine is two phase fluid of high temperature, high pressure, and high speed and flows to inverse direction after impinging to impingement baffle. the shell wall of the number 5 high pressure feedwater heater may be affected by flow accelerated corrosion. On May 14, 1999, Point Beach Nuclear Plant (PBNP) with operating at full power experienced a steam leak from rupture of shell side of number 4B feedwater heater. Also, d domestic nuclear power plant experienced a severe wall thinning of shell side of number 5A and 5B feedwater heaters. This paper describes the fluid mixing analysis study using PHOENICS code in order to get at the root of the shell wall thinning of the feedwater heaters. The sections included in the fluid mixing analysis model are around the number 5h feedwater heater shell including the extracting pipeline. To identify the relation between the local velocities and wall thinning. the local velocities according to the analysis results were compared with the distribution of the shell wall thickness by ultrasonic test.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.19 no.5 s.66
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• pp.65-70
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• 2005

Fracture behavior and pipe strength are very important to the integrity of energy plants, ocean structures, and so forth. The pipes of energy plants and ocean structures are subject to local wall thinning, resulting from severe erosion-corrosion damage. Recently, the effects of local wall thinning on fracture strength and fracture behavior of piping systems have been the focus of many studies. In this paper, the elasto-plastic analysis is performed by FE code ANSYS on straight pipes with wall thinning. We evaluated the failure mode, fracture strength and fracture behavior, using FE analysis. Also, the effect of the axial strain on deformations and failure modes was estimated by FE analysis.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.742-749
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• 2003

Failure of a pipeline due to local wall thinning is getting more attention in the nuclear power plant industry. Although guidelines such as ANSI/ASME B31G and ASME Code Case N597 are still useful fer assessing the integrity of a wall thinned pipeline, there are some limitations in these guidelines. For instance, these guidelines consider only pressure loading and thus neglect bending loading. However, most Pipelines in nuclear power plants are subjected to internal pressure and bending moment due to dead-weight loads and seismic loads. Therefore, an assessment procedure for locally wall thinned pipeline subjected to combined loading is needed. In this paper, three-dimensional finite element(FE) analyses were performed to simulate full-scale pipe tests conducted for various shapes of wall thinned area under internal pressure and bending moment. Maximum moments based on true ultimate stress(${\alpha}$$\sub$u,t/) were obtained from FE results to predict the failure of the pipe. These results were compared with test results, which showed good agreement. Additional finite element analyses were performed to investigate the effect of key parameters, such as wall thinned depth, wall thinned angle and wall thinned length, on maximum moment. Also, the effect of internal pressure on maximum moment was investigated. Change of internal pressure did not show significant effect on the maximum moment.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.1200-1209
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• 2003

In this paper, a unified methodology based on the local stress concept to estimate residual strength of locally thinned pipes. An underlying idea of the proposed methodology is that the local stress in the minimum section for locally thinned pipe is related to the reference stress, popularly used in creep problems. Then the problem remains how to define the reference stress, that is the reference load. Extensive three-dimensional finite element (FE) analyses were performed to simulate full-scale pipe tests conducted for various shapes of wall thinned area under internal pressure and bending moment. Based on these FE results, the reference load is proposed, which is independent of materials. A natural outcome of this method is the maximum load capacity. By comparing with existing test results, it is shown that the reference stress is related to the fracture stress, which in turn can be posed as the fracture criterion of locally thinned pipes. The proposed method is powerful as it can be easily generalised to more complex problems, such as pipe bends and tee-joints.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.30 no.7 s.250
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• pp.707-714
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• 2006

A numerical analysis study has performed in terms of fluid dynamics to identify the wall thinning generated in the main feedwater isolation valve body of a nuclear power plant. To review the relations between flow characteristics and the wall thinning induced by flow accelerated corrosion (FAC), numerical analysis using FLUENT code and ultrasonic tests (UT) were performed. The local velocities according to the analysis results were compared with the distribution of the measured wall thickness by ultrasonic tests. The comparison results show that the local velocity in the x-direction had no correlation with the wall thinning but the local velocity in the y-direction and turbulence intensity had a great influence on that. These results provide a good match to those of the previous studies - locations colliding vertically against components undergo severe wall thinning. These results may be utilized to the design modification and the wall thinning management for main feedwater isolation valves for preventing the wall thinning degradation.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.38-46
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• 2010

The wall thinning phenomenon of pipes was simulated as metal loss due to erosion and corrosion. Such wall thinning defects in the pipes of power plants are a very important safety consideration. In this study, we analyzed wall thinning defects that occurred by weld bead of weld zone of boost pump recirculation pipe. From the results of the analysis of pipe failures, numerical analysis was performed by Fluent v6.3.26 using the standard k-$\varepsilon$ model of the weld bead shape, such as an elliptical or a spherical shape, on the inner wall of the pipe. Using the results obtained, we showed the overlap effect by cavitations corrosion and erosion-corrosion at the bottom of the wall-thinning defect.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.31 no.1 s.256
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• pp.1-7
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• 2007

Feedwater heaters of many nuclear power plants have recently experienced severe wall thinning damage, which will increase as operating time progresses. Several nuclear power plants in Korea have experienced wall thinning damage in the area around the impingement baffle - installed downstream of the high pressure turbine extraction steam line - inside number 5A and 5B feedwater heaters. At that point, the extracted steam from the high pressure turbine is two phase fluid at high temperature, high pressure, and high speed. Since it flows in reverse direction after impinging the impingement baffle, the shell wall of the number 5 high pressure feedwater heater may be affected by flow-accelerated corrosion. This paper describes the comparisons between the numerical analysis results using the FLUENT code and the down scale experimental data in an effort to determine root causes of the shell wall thinning of the high pressure feedwater heaters. The numerical analysis and experimental data were also confirmed by actual wall thickness measured by an ultrasonic test.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.281-286
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• 2008

Wall thinning defect due to flow accelerated corrosion is one of major aging phenomena in most power plant industries, and it results in reducing load carrying capacity of the piping systems. A failure testing system was set up for real scale elbows containing various simulated wall thinning defects, and monotonic in-plane bending tests were performed under internal pressure to find out the failure behavior of thinned elbows. Various finite element models were generated and analysed to figure out and simulate the behavior for other thinning shapes and loading conditions. This paper presents the decreasing trends of load carrying capacity according to the thinning dimensions which were revealed from the investigation of finite element analysis results. A mechanical integrity evaluation model for thinned elbows was proposed, also. This model can be used to calculate the TES plastic load of thinned elbows for general internal pressure, thinning location, and in-plane bending direction.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.586-593
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• 2007

This paper proposes closed-form plastic limit load solutions for elbow with local wall thinning at extrados under internal pressure. This work was performed using 3-dimensional, small strain FE analyses based on elastic-perfectly plastic materials. The wide range of elbow and local wall thinning geometries are considered. For systematic analyses for effect of axial thinning extent on limit loads, two limiting cases are considered; a sufficiently long thinning, and the circumferential part-through surface crack. Then, the closed-form plastic limit load solutions for intermediate thinning are obtained by using result of two limiting cases. The effect of axial thinning extent for elbow on plastic limit load is highlighted by comparing with that for straight pipes. Although the proposed limit load solutions are developed for the case when local wall thinning exist in the center of elbow, it is also shown that they can be applied to the case when local wall thinning exists anywhere within elbow.