• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.148-155
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• 2013

The steam generators of OPR-1000 plants have Alloy 600 and Alloy 690 as the tube material and its tube expansion method is the explosive expansion method. According to the experience of these plants, circumferential cracks were largely occurred in steam generator tubes expanded by the explosive expansion method and their locations were the outer surface of tube expansion transition region surrounding with piled-up sludge. But even though tubes have the same conditions, tubes with the hydraulic expansion method shows the prevail trend of axial cracks compared to circumferential cracks. Therefore in this study, in order to identify the difference of such phenomena as above, configurations of tube and tubesheet were modeled and at operating conditions, stress values applied in the tube expansion transition area in accordance with tube expansion methods were calculated by using computational program and the direction and the predominance of cracks were evaluated.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.149-157
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• 2014

The steam generator tubes of nuclear power plants have various types of corrosion failures during the plant operation. The stress corrosion cracking which occurs on the outer surface of tube is called the secondary side stress corrosion cracking and mainly occurs in the expansion-transition area of tube. The causes are the concentration of impurities by the sludge pile-up related to the geometry of its region and the residual stress by tube expansion in the process of steam generator manufacturing. Especially the directionality and sizes of residual stresses are differed according to the tube expansion methods and the direction and the frequency of tube cracks depend on their characteristics. In bases on the plant experiences, it is notified that circumferential cracks of tubes expanded with explosive expansion method are dominantly occurred compared to those of tubes done with hydraulic expansion one. Therefore in this study, according to tube expansion methods frequencies and sizes of tube cracks with specific direction are compared by means of accelerated immersion test and also the crack morphology and the specific chemicals from water-chemistry environment are observed through the fracture surface examination.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.362-372
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• 2012

The steam generator tubes of nuclear power plants are pressure boundaries, and if tubes are leaked, the coolant with the radioactive materials was flowed out from the primary system to the secondary system and polluted the plant and the air. Recently most crack defects of tubes are stress corrosion cracks and these defects are located in expansion transition area, sludge pile-up region, and U-bend area. The most effective one of crack initiation factors in expansion transition area and U-bend area is the residual stress. According to the experiences of Korea standard nuclear plants(Optimized Power Reactor-1000), they had the stress corrosion cracks at the tube expansion transition area in early operating stage and especially lots of circumferential cracks were occurred. Therefore in this study, the distributions and conditions of residual stresses by tube expansion methods were compared and the dominant reason of a specific direction was examined.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.23 no.11 s.170
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• pp.1896-1903
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• 1999

The basic requirements to improve the joints quality of tube-to-tubesheet for heat exchangers are to obtain high residual contact pressures between the tubes and the tubesheet as well as low residual stresses in the transition zone of the tubes. The residual contact pressures and residual stresses which govern the joint quality are influenced by parameters such as material properties, geometric dimension of tube and tubesheet and expansion pressures. There are two types of tube layout patterns, triangular and square, which are frequently used for heat exchangers. The purpose of the present work is to examine the superior tube layout patterns considering the joints quality by comparing numerical results from sensitivity analyses which were performed for both of tube layout patterns.