• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.1681-1688
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• 2019

In accordance with ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel (B&PV) Code Sec.XI Appendix. G, a postulated crack is located at the beltline of a reactor pressure vessel because the neutron flux at the beltline is higher than elsewhere. This means that the distance between the core and the semi-spherical bottom head is longer than the distance between the core and the cylindrical beltline. However, several Small and Medium sized Reactors have bottom heads with diverse shapes, including dished or semi-elliptical shapes, to satisfy the requirement and performance. So, the aim of this paper is to evaluate the effect of crack location on Pressure-Temperature limit curve. To do this, two types of postulated crack location, such as beltline and semi-elliptical bottom head, were adopted to derive the Pressure-Temperature limit curve. Also, parametric studies for neutron flux, crack shape and so on were performed. As a result, core critical temperature of semi-elliptical bottom head is found to higher than that of beltline even when they have same values of thickness and neutron flux. This result will be useful to enhance the understanding of Pressure-Temperature limit curve.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.727-728
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• 2008

The objective of this study is to evaluate the integrity for a reactor pressure vessel under the pressurized thermal shock by applying the probability fracture mechanics. A semi-elliptical axial crack is assumed to be in the beltline region of the reactor pressure vessel. The selected random variables are the neutron fluence on the vessel inside surface, the content of copper, nickel, and phosphorus in the reactor pressure vessel material, and initial RTNDT. The probabilistic integrity analysis was performed using the Monte Carlo simulation.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.309-316
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• 2004

A probabilistic structural integrity assessment is performed for a reactor pressure vessel under PTS(Pressurized Thermal Shock). A semi-elliptical finite axial crack is assumed to he in the beltline region(either base metal or weld meta)1 of the reactor vessel inside surface. The selected random variables are initial crack depth, neutron fluence on the vessel inside surface, copper, nickel, and phosphorus content of the vessel material, and RT/sub NDT/. The probabilities of crack initiation or vessel failure where the crack is propagated through vessel wall are calculated. The probabilities obtained with random crack size are compared to these obtained with deterministic us. Since the failure function cannot to explicitly by selected by selected random variables, Monte Carlo Simulation is applied to perform probabilistic analysis The influence of the amount of neutron fluence is also examined to assess the structural reliability for vessel life time.

• Journal of the Speleological Society of Korea
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• no.82
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• pp.5-7
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• 2007

In this paper, p-n junction formation using screen-printed metalization and co-firing is used to fabricate high-efficiency solar cells on single- crystalline silicon substrates. In order to form high-quality contacts, co-firing of a screen-printed Ag grid on the front and Al on the back surface field is implemented. These contacts require low contact resistance, high conductivity, and good adhesion to achieve high efficiency. Before co-firing, a statistically designed experiment is conducted. After the experiment, a neural network (NN) trained by the error back-propagation algorithm is employed to model the crucial relationships between several input factors and solar cell efficiency. The trained NN model is also used to optimize the beltline furnace process through genetic algorithms.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.99-107
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• 2000

A probabilistic integrity analysis method is presented for a reactor vessel under pressurized thermal shock(PTS) based on Monte Carlo simulation. This method can be applied to the structural integrity assessment of a reactor vessel subjected to pressurized thermal shock where the coolant temperature transient cannot be expressed explicitly as a time function. An axially or circumferentially oriented infinite length surface crack is assumed to be in the beltline weld region of the rector vessel's inside surface. The random variables are the initial crack depth, neutron fluence on the vessel's inside surface, the copper and nickel content of the vessel materials, R $T_{NDT}$ , $K_{IC}$ , and K/aub la/. The reliability of a sample reactor vessel under PTS is assessed quantitatively and the influence of the amount of neutron fluence is also examined by applying the present method.sent method.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.7
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• pp.665-674
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• 2006

Three-dimensional neutron flux and fluence of Kori Unit 3 were evaluated using the synthesis technique described in Regulatory Guide 1.190 for all reactor geometry. For this purpose DORT neutron transport calculations from Cycle 1 to Cycle 15 were performed using BUGLE-96 cross-section library. The calculated flux and fluence were validated by comparing the calculated reaction rates to the measurement data from the dosimetry sensor set of the $5^{th}$ surveillance capsule withdrawn at the end of cycle 15 of Kori Unit 3. And then the best estimation of the neutron exposures for the reactor vessel beltline region was performed using the least square evaluation. These results can be used in the assessment of the state of embrittlement of Kori Unit 3 pressure vessel.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.2219-2227
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• 2002

In a nuclear power plant, reactor pressure vessel (RPV) is the primary pressure boundary component that must be protected against failure. The neutron irradiation on RPV in the beltline region, however, tends to cause localized damage accumulation, leading to crack initiation and propagation which raises RPV integrity issues. The objective of this paper is to estimate the integrity of RPV under hot leg leaking accident by applying the finite element analysis. In this paper, a parametric study was performed for various crack configurations based on 3-dimensional finite element models. The crack configuration, the crack orientation, the crack aspect ratio and the clad thickness were considered in the parametric study. The effect of these parameters on the maximum allowable nil-ductility transition reference temperature ($(RT_{NDT})$) was investigated on the basis of finite element analyses.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.107-112
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• 2014

The Code of Federal Regulations, Title 10, Part 50, Appendix H requires surveillance program for reactor pressure vessel(RPV) that the peak neutron fluence at the end of the design life of the vessel will exceed $1.0E+17n/cm^2$ (E>1.0MeV). 2D/1D Synthesis method based on DORT 3.1 transport calculation code has been widely used to determine fast neutron(E>1.0MeV) fluence exposure to RPV in the beltline region. RAPTOR-M3G(RApid Parallel Transport Of Radiation-Multiple 3D Geometries) performing full 3D transport calculation was developed by Westinghouse and KRIST(Korea Reactor Integrity Surveillance Technology) and applied for the evaluations of In-Vessel and Ex-Vessel neutron dosimetry. The reaction rates from measurement and calculation were compared and the results show good agreements each other.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.158-167
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• 2007

It is required that the neutron dosimetry be present to monitor the reactor vessel throughout its plant life. The Ex-vessel Neutron Dosimetry Systems which consist of sensor sets, radiometric monitors, gradient chains, and support hardware have been installed for 3-Loop plants after a complete withdrawal of all six in-vessel surveillance capsules. The systems have been installed in the reactor cavity annulus in order to characterize the neutron energy spectrum over the beltline region of the reactor vessel. The installed dosimetry were withdrawn and evaluated after a irradiation during one cycle and then compared to the cycle specific neutron transport calculations. The reaction rates from the measurement and calculation were compared and the results show good agreements each other.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.248-259
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• 2021

This study examined the influence of post weld heat treatment (PWHT) conditions on corrosion behaviors of laser-welded super duplex stainless steel tube. Due to the high cooling rate of laser welding, the phase fraction of ferrite and austenite in the weld metal became unbalanced significantly. In addition, the Cr₂N particles were precipitated adjacent to the fusion line, which can be susceptible to the localized corrosion. On the other hand, the phase fraction in the weld metal was restored at a ratio of 5:5 when exposed to temperatures above 1060 ℃ during the post weld heat treatment. Nevertheless, the high beltline speed during the PWHT, leading to the insufficient cooling rate, caused a precipitation of σ phase at the interface between ferrite/austenite in both weld metal and base metal. This resulted in the severe corrosion damages and significant decrease in critical pitting temperature (CPT), which was even lower than that measured in as-welded condition. Moreover, the fraction of σ phase in the center region of post weld heat treated steel tube was obtained to be higher than in the surface region. These results suggest that the PWHT conditions for the steel tube should be optimized to ensure the high corrosion resistance by excluding the precipitation of σ phase even in center region.