• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.18-27
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• 2019

The Advanced Power Reactor 1400 (APR1400) Steam Generator (SG) uses alloy 690 as a tube material and SA-508 Grade 3 Class 1 as a tubesheet material to form tube-to-tubesheet joint through hydraulic expansion process. In this paper, the residual stresses in the SG tube-to-tubesheet contact area was investigated by applying Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE) methodology and the V-model. The use of MBSE transform system description into diagrams which clearly describe the logical interaction between functions hence minimizes the risk of ambiguity. A theoretical and Finite Element Methodology (FEM) was used to assess and compare the residual stresses in the tube-to-tubesheet contact area. Additionally, the axial strength of the tube to tubesheet joint based on the pull-out force against the contact joint force was evaluated and recommended optimum autofrettage pressure to minimize residual stresses in the transition zone given. A single U-tube hole and tubesheet with ligament thickness was taken as a single cylinder and plane strain condition was assumed. An iterative method was used in FEM simulation to find the limit autofrettage pressure at which pull-out force and contact force are of the same magnitude. The joint contact force was estimated to be 20 times more than the pull-out force and the limit autofrettage pressure was estimated to be 141.85MPa.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.35 no.8
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• pp.951-956
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• 2011

Inconel alloys are generally used as steam generator tubes in nuclear power plants. These alloys are highnickel chromium alloys that exhibit excellent resistance to aqueous corrosion. In this paper, the effects of elevated temperatures such as an operating temperature of $320^{\circ}C$ on the fretting fatigue behavior of inconel 600 and 690. We observed that the plain and fretting fatigue limits at $320^{\circ}C$ were slightly lower than those at room temperature. The frictional forces varied depending on the number of load cycles. After each test, we studied the fretting fatigue mechanisms via SEM observations. These results can be used for structural integrity evaluations at elevated temperatures and for studying fretting damage in steam generator systems.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.633-640
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• 2014

In this research, the surface roughness affecting the pressure drop in a pipe used as the steam generator of a PWR was studied. Based on the CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) technique using a commercial code named ANSYS-FLUENT, a straight pipe was modeled to obtain the Darcy frictional coefficient, changed with a range of various surface roughness ratios as well as Reynolds numbers. The result is validated by the comparison with a Moody chart to set the appropriate size of grids at the wall for the correct consideration of surface roughness. The pressure drop in a full-scale U-shaped pipe is measured with the same code, correlated with the surface roughness ratio. In the next stage, we studied a reduced scale model of a U-shaped heat pipe with experiment and analysis of the investigation into fluid-structure interaction (FSI). The material of the pipe was cut from the real heat pipe of a material named Inconel 690 alloy, now used in steam generators. The accelerations at the fixed stations on the outer surface of the pipe model are measured in the series of time history, and Fourier transformed to the frequency domain. The natural frequency of three leading modes were traced from the FFT data, and compared with the result of a numerical analysis for unsteady, incompressible flow. The corresponding mode shapes and maximum displacement are obtained numerically from the FSI simulation with the coupling of the commercial codes, ANSYS-FLUENT and TRANSIENT_STRUCTURAL. The primary frequencies for the model system consist of three parts: structural vibration, BPF(blade pass frequency) of pump, and fluid-structure interaction.