• 한국압력기기공학회 논문집
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• 제11권2호
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• pp.40-44
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• 2015

The fatigue behavior of thermal butt fusion in safety class III high-density polyethylene (HDPE) buried piping for nuclear power plants was investigated using load-controlled bending fatigue on four-point bend test specimens. Based on the results, the presence of thermal butt fusion beads was confirmed to reduce the fatigue lifetime in the low- and medium-cycle fatigue regions while having a negligible effect in the high-cycle fatigue regions.

• 한국압력기기공학회 논문집
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• 제18권2호
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• pp.54-60
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• 2022

ASME BPVC provides stress evaluation rules for Class 2 and 3 nuclear piping. However, such rules are difficult to be applied to reinforced wall-thinned pipes during service. To resolve this issue, a new method for stress evaluation of reinforced wall-thinned pipes is proposed in this work, based on the equivalent stiffness concept. By converting a reinforced wall-thinned pipe to an equivalent straight pipe having the same stiffness, stress evaluation can be proceeded using the current ASME BPVC rules. The proposed method is applied to pipes with 4 different normal pipe size and the effects of reinforcement and wall-thinning dimensions on evaluated stresses are discussed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제56권4호
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• pp.1320-1329
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• 2024

When wall-thinning occurs in nuclear Class 2 and 3 pipes, reinforcement is typically applied rather than replacement. To analyze the structural integrity of reinforced wall-thinned pipe, stress analysis results using full 3-D FE analysis are not compatible to the design code equation, ASME BPVC Sec. III NC/ND-3650. Therefore, the efficient stress evaluation method for the reinforced wall-thinned pipe, compatible to the design code equation, needs to be developed. In this paper, stress evaluation methods for the reinforced wall-thinned pipe are proposed using the equivalent straight pipe concept. Furthermore, for fatigue analysis of the reinforced wall-thinned pipe, the stress intensification factor of reinforced wall-thinned pipe is presented using the structural stress method given in ASME BPVC Sec. VIII Div.2.

• 한국압력기기공학회 논문집
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• 제6권1호
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• pp.37-42
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• 2010

The stay cylinder weld at the steam generator of Korean Standard Nuclear Power Plants is safety class I component and is subjected to be inspected by the volumetric examination such as ultrasonic method. As accessibility of this area is limited due to the narrow space and high radiation, the existing manual inspection method involves various difficulties. Moreover operators may be exposed to internal contamination by contaminated dust during the surface buffing process to improve the inspection reliability of this area. Recently the new automatic inspection system for stay cylinder welds has been developed. The inspection system basically consists of a driving assembly, data acquisition device and signal processing units. The driving assembly is classified by 1) the scanner for inspecting and buffing the weld, 2) pillars for guiding the scanner and 3) the base frame for loading and supporting pillars. The scanner has 4 sensor modules to inspect in 4 refracted angles and 4 incident directions. These components can be inserted into the skirt of the stay cylinder through the manway hole and assembled easily by one-touch in the skirt. Data acquisition device and signal processing units developed in previous works are also newly upgraded for better processing of data analysis and evaluation. The system has been successfully demonstrated not only in the mock-up but also in the field. In this paper, newly developed inspection system for the stay cylinder weld of the steam generator is introduced and their field applications are discussed.