• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.27-35
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• 2009

In this paper, we study the classification of steam generator tube defects using an improved feature extraction. We consider 4 axisymmetric defect patterns of tube: I-In type, I-Out type, V-In type, and V-Out type. Through numerical analysis program based on finite element modeling, 400 ECT signals are generated by varying width and depth of each defect type. From those generated ECT signals, we propose new feature vectors that include an angle between the two points where the Maximum impedance and half the Maximum impedance, and angles between Maximum impedance point and 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% of Maximum impedance points. Also, multi-layer perceptron with one hidden layer is used to classify the defect patterns. Through the computer simulation study, it is shown that the proposed method achieves an improved defect classification performance in terms of Maximum Error and mean square Error.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.178-188
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• 2003

The wear of steam generator tubes is due to the vibration occurred between tubes and tube supporters. To predict the future wear depth, the wear constants of the impact and the sliding model is used. The wear constants, 3C/2 and K/3H, are found inversely from known wear depth and time. Using these constants, the future wear depths are found from two bodies that deform the elliptical shape. The results are compared with the measured wear depth of steam generator tubes in a nuclear power plant. The results show that the predicted wear depth envelopes the measured wear depth.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.59-62
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• 2001

Flow induced vibration in steam generators has caused dynamic interactions between tubes and contacting materials resulting in fretting wear . Series of experiments have been performed to examine the wear properties of Inconel 690 steam generator tubes in various environmental conditions. For the present study, the test rig was designed to examine the fretting wear and rolling wear properties in high temperature(room temperature - 290。C) water. The test was performed at constant applied load and sliding distance to investigate the effect of test temperature on wear properties of the steam generator tube materials. To investigate the wear mechanism of material, the worn was observed using scanning electron microscopy. The weight loss increase at higher test temperature was caused by the decrease of water viscosity and the mechanical property change of tube material. The mechanical property changes of steam generator tube material, such as decrease of hardness or yield stress in the high temperature tests. From the SEM observation of worn surfaces, the severe wear scars were observed in specimens tested at the higher temperature.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2002.06d
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• pp.263-266
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• 2002

This paper describes extraction procedure for the center coordinates of steam generator tubes of Youngkwang NPP #6, which are arrayed in triangular patterns. Steam generator tube images taken with wide field-of-view lens and low-light lamp mounted on a ccd camera tend to have low contrast, because steam generator is sealed and poorly illuminated. The extraction procedures consists of two steps. The first step is to process the region with superior contrast in entire image of steam generator tubes and to extract the center points. Using the extracted coordinates in the first step and the geometrical array characteristics of tubes lined up in regular triangle forms, the central points of the rest region with low contrast are estimated. The straight lines from center point of a tube to neighbour points in horizontal and 60, 120$^{\circ}$ degree directions are derived. The intersections of straight line In horizontal direction and slant line in regular triangle direction are selected as the center coordinates of steam generator tubes. The Chi-square interpolation method is used to determine the line's coefficients in horizontal and regular triangle direction.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• summer
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• pp.887-889
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• 2004

This paper presents an analysis of RPC probe signal in steam generator tube with defect using finite element method. Impedance signal is calculated according to the depth variation of defect in tube and change of frequency in same defect. As the depth of the defect and the operating frequency is increased, the magnitude of the signal is increased. From the result of this paper, we can obtain the information by the effect of defect and frequency.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2003.07b
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• pp.702-704
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• 2003

In this paper, analysis of bobbin probe signal in steam generator tube with bulge defect on CE system 80 nuclear power plant is represented. The CE system 80 steam generator is adopted in ULJIN-4 nuclear power plant. From Maxwell's equation, the electromagnetic governing equation for eddy current problem is derived and by performing the finite element formulation the 3-dimensional finite element code with brick element is developed. For the ease of the comparison the numerical results with experimental ones, the calculated signals are adjusted by using the ASME standard 100[%] through hole signal. For analysis of the effect of variation of the bulge depth on the impedance signal 0.2[mm] and 0.4[mm] depth of bulge defect signals are calculated and analyzed. As the depth of the bulge defect is increased, the magnitude of the signal is increased, too. But the rate of the increment of the signal is less than that of the depth of defect. From the result of this paper, we can obtained the information of the effect of bulge defect on the impedance signal.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.28-33
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• 2010

As a part of license renewal for the continued operation of Wolsong unit 1, the periodic safety review report was submitted near the end of design lifetime, 2012, and now is under reviewing. Major components of primary system such as pressure tubes, feeder pipes and so on are being replaced and many components of secondary system are also being repaired. So the license renewal of Wolsong unit 1 is expected to be acquired without significant issues. But on the other hand, steam generators of Wolsong unit 1 had the good performance and therefore the replacement and repair for the steam generator are not needed. Recently it is reported that some cracks were detected in a few of european steam generator with Alloy 800 tubes and the cause of cracks was the outer diameter stress corrosion cracking(ODSCC) due to the concentration of chemical impurities on the outer surface of tube. Accordingly the overall review on this issue was performed. The long-term operation is likely to results to form the concentration mechanism for the tube corrosion as the sludge build-up in the secondary side of steam generator and the crack in the crevice between tube and tube-sheet and expansion transitions is apt to be occurred. In this paper, the history of steam generator inspection and operation of Wolsong unit 1 are reviewed and the reliability of steam generator tube is evaluated and the steam generator aging management program for Wolsong unit 1 is introduced.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.655-662
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• 2014

This study conducted tensile tests on an Alloy 690TT tube at room temperature (RT) and at $343^{\circ}C$ using tube- and ring-type specimens to investigate the stress-strain behavior and tensile properties of a steam generator (SG) tube in the axial and circumferential directions at RT and at the design temperature of a nuclear power plant (NPP). The results of the axial tensile test showed that yield point phenomena appeared at both RT and $343^{\circ}C$, and serrated flow in the stress-strain curve appeared at $343^{\circ}C$. Yield and tensile strengths for both directions were clearly lower at $343^{\circ}C$ compared to RT; however, the elongations were approximately the same at both test temperatures. Regardless of the test temperature, the strengths in the circumferential direction were lower by approximately 5~10 % than those in the axial direction. In addition, the test data revealed that the reduction in the yield and tensile strengths of the Alloy 690TT SG tube with the test temperature was more significant than that estimated by the temperature correction factor of ASME Sec.II.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.29 no.10 s.241
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• pp.1361-1368
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• 2005

The structural and leakage integrity of steam generator tubes should be sustained all postulated loads with appropriate margin even if a crack is present. During the past three decades, for effective integrity evaluation, several limit load solutions have been used world-widely. However, to predict accurately load carrying capacities of specific components under different conditions, the solutions have to be modified by using lots of experimental data. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new burst pressure estimation scheme based on fracture mechanics analyses for steam generator tube with an axial or circumferential through-wall crack. A series of three dimensional elastic-plastic finite element analyses were carried out and, then, closed-form estimation equations with respect to both J-integral and crack opening displacement were derived through reference stress method. The developed engineering equations were utilized for structural integrity evaluation and the resulting data were compared to the corresponding ones fiom experiments as well as limit load solutions. Thereafter, since the effectiveness was proven by promising results, it is believed that the proposed estimation scheme can be used as an efficient tool for integrity evaluation of cracked steam generator tubes.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics S
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• v.35S no.2
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• pp.137-145
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• 1998

In this paper, we propose a tube-hole center detection vision algorithm verifying the position of a tele-controlled robot and providing visual information for increasing reliability and efficiency in the diagnosis of steam generator (SG) tubes in nuclear power plant. A tele-controlled robot plays a role in carrying the probe used in inspecting the integrity of SG tubes. Thus accurately locating a tele-controlled robot on the desired tube-hole center is important issue for reliability of inspection. To do this work, we have to find the tube-hole center locations from the input image. At first, we apply the three-class segmentation method modified for this application. WE extract minimum bounding rectangles (MBRs) in the theresholded binary image. Second, for discriminating between MBR by tube and MBR by noise, we introduce the MBR rejection rules as knowledge-based rule set. MBRs are divided into the very dark region MBRs and the very bright region MBRs. In order to describe the region of complete tube-hole, the MBRs need a process of pairing each other. We then can find the tube-hole center from the paired MBR. For more accurately finding the tube-hole center in several sequential images, the centers of some frames need to be averaged. We tested the performance of our method using hundreds of real images.