• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.79-83
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• 2010

The conventional welding technique such as shield metal arc welding has been mostly applied to the piping system of the nuclear power plants. It is well known that this welding technique causes the overheating and welding defects due to the large groove angle of weld. On the other hand, the narrow gap welding(NGW) technique has many merits, for instance, the reduction of welding time, the shrinkage of weld and the small deformation of the weld due to the small groove angle and welding bead width comparing with the conventional welds. These characteristics of NGW affect the deformation behavior and the distribution of welding residual stress of NGW, thus it is believed that the residual stress results obtained from conventional welding procedure may not be applied to structural integrity evaluation of NGW. In this paper, the welding residual stress of NGW was predicted using the nonlinear finite element analysis to simulate the thermal and mechanical effects of the NGW. The present results can be used as the important information to perform the flaw evaluation and to improve the weld procedure of NGW.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.635-642
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• 2011

It is well known that conventional welding techniques can result in welding defects due to the large groove angle of the weld. In this context, the narrow gap welding (NGW) technique is applied in the nuclear industry because of its inherent merits such as the reduction in welding time and the shrinkage of the weld, and the small deformation of the weld resulting from the small groove angle and welding bead width. In this paper, the distribution of welding residual stress and deformation behavior of the ER308L weld due to NGW are predicted through nonlinear two-dimensional finite element analysis, in which the actual NGW process is simulated in detail. In particular, the effects of the shape of weld, i.e., the width of the weld and the shape of the welding groove, on the residual stress are investigated. The present results can be used to assess the integrity of defective nuclear components and to improve the welding process.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 1998.05a
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• pp.184-187
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• 1998

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.67-72
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• 2010

The fracture toughness for the LBB analysis of piping is generally determined by the J-integral according to ASTM E1820. However, since this evaluates a base metal, the fracture toughness for narrow gap welding can be differently than the real value. This study evaluated the plastic  factor of the narrow gap welding part of a nuclear piping with SA508 Cl.1a and SA312 TP316. Also, it performed the fracture toughness test for the narrow gap welding part and applied the new plastic $\eta$ factor equation by Huh, et al. and then compared the results with those according with the ASTM standard.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 1996.05a
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• pp.30-33
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• 1996

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.670-677
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• 2003

Although Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW or TIG welding) is considered as high quality and precision welding process, it also has demerit of low melting rate. Narrow-gap TIG welding which has narrow joint width reduces the groove volume remarkably, so it could be shorten the welding time and decrease the overall shrinkage in heavy wall pipe welding. Generally Narrow-gap TIG welding is used as orbital welding process, it is important to select the optimum conditions for the automatic control welding This paper looks at the application and metallurgical properties on Narrow-gap TIG welding joint of heavy wall large austenitic stainless steel pipe to determine the deposition efficiency, the resultant shrinkage and fracture toughness. The fracture toughness depends slightly on the welding heat input.

• Special Issue of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• 2013.12a
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• pp.73-80
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• 2013

From broad point of view, seam tracking has been one of main issues with respect to welding automation. Several attempts have been successful for seam tracking of fixed weaving width. As a solution of the seam tracking methods for varying groove width, the visual sensors such as CCD cameras have been adopted. Although the vision sensing techniques can achieve high accuracy, the weak point is that well-prepared vision sensor environment should be required to obtain high-quality visual measurements which can be easily affected by significant noises in industrial areas. This paper proposed an alternative seam tracking algorithm for narrow groove. A special measurement device for arc voltage, in this study, is developed to enhance the reliability of the measured welding signals. Based on the developed arc sensor algorithm, an automatic weld-width tracking algorithm is also proposed, which is able to predict the weld-position more accurately. The usefulness of the automatic weld-width tracking algorithm was well verified by applying it to gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW).

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.346-348
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• 2005

TIG welding can produce high quality of weld, but has the disadvantage of low productivity and high possibility of lack-of-fusion especially on heavy wall groove welding. In order to overcome such demerits of TIG welding, the hot-wire method which provides pre-heated wire and the use of He-Ar mixture gas as shielding gas were adopted. Through this study, both methods were turned out to be beneficial to the prevention of lack-of-fusion and the increase of productivity and welding speed.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• v.43
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• pp.76-78
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• 2004

The phenomenon of weld shrinkage mainly occurs owing to residual stress by heating, which largely effects on welding quality, Actually as the shrinkage rate depends on the weld deposit amount, so it is desired that the sectional area of weld joint shall be reduced. In this respect the Electron beam welding has more profitable position compare to Narrow-gap TIG welding which is even superior to other arc welding processes. In case of thick austenitic stainless steel the shrinkage rate of Electron beam welding has about $10\%$ of Narrow-gap TIG welding's, which means that residual stress is a lot less than that of Narrow-gap TIG welding. And heat input and welded section area also indicate large difference between two processes.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.82-84
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• 2005

Among the advanced welding processes which are superior to conventional process, Electron beam welding and Narrow-gap TIG welding are most prospective in being applicable for the heavy industry field. With STS316LN, which is high strengthened austenitic stainless steel, the characteristic evaluation for these welding processes was carried out through the mechnical tests and property analyses. For the tensile strength EBW is better while in reverse for the yield strength. In Narrow-gap TIG the distribution of hardness values has some deviation according to the thickness direction while EBW has a tendency of a litter high hardness values in weld metal. After EB welding brings the reduction of nitrogen content, in TIG welding weld metal depends on the contents of welding material. Both processes have almost austenitic structure, but weld metal of EBW is also shown terrific structure