• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.343-354
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• 2012

Primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC) is a major safety concern in the nuclear power industry worldwide. PWSCC is known to initiate only in the condition in which sufficiently high tensile stress is applied to alloy 600 tube material or alloy 82/182 weld material in pressurized water reactor operating environments. However, it is still uncertain how much tensile stress is re-quired to generate PWSCC or what causes such high tensile stress. This study was performed to pre-dict the magnitude of weld residual stress and operating stress and compare it with previous experi-mental results for PWSCC initiation. For the study, a pressurizer safety nozzle was selected because it is reported to be vulnerable to PWSCC in overseas plants. The assessment was conducted by nu-merical analysis. Before performing stress analysis for plant conditions, a preliminary mock-up ana-lysis was done. The result of the preliminary analysis was validated by residual stress measurement in the mock-up. After verification of the analysis methodology, an analysis under plant conditions was conducted. The analysis results show that the stress level is not high enough to initiate PWSCC. If a plant is properly welded and operated, PWSCC is not likely to occur in the pressurizer safety nozzle.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.34-39
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• 2011

Nickel-based austenitic alloys such as Alloy 82 and 182 had been employed as the weld metals in nuclear power plants (NPPs) due to their high corrosion resistance as well as good mechanical properties. However, since the 2000s, the occurrence of primary water stress corrosion cracking has been reported in conjunction with these alloys in domestic and oversea NPPs. In the present work, we assumed an imaginary crack at the inner surface of a surge nozzle weld that had previously experienced the outside repair welding, and constructed its finite element model. Finite element analysis was performed with respect to the heat transfer, and then to the residual stress for obtaining the total applied stress distributions. These stress distributions were finally converted to the stress intensity factors for estimating crack growth rate. From the comparison of crack growth rate curves for the cases of no repair welding and outside repair welding, it was found that the outside repair welding did not exhibit negative effect on the crack growth for the surge nozzle under consideration in this work; in both cases, the cracks stopped growing before they became the through-wall cracks.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.52-60
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• 2015

Nuclear power plant contain many dissimilar metal welds that connect carbon steel components with stainless steel pipes using alloy600 welding materials. Primary water stress corrosion cracks at dissimilar metal welds have been continuously reported around the world. In periodic integrity evaluations, dissimilar metal welds are examined using a generic ultrasonic testing procedure, KPD-UT-10. In this procedure, the gap between the probe and examination surface is limited to 1/32 inch (0.8mm). It is not easy to test some dissimilar metal welds in Korean plants applying ordinary technology because of their tapered shapes and irregular surface conditions. This paper introduces a method for applying a flexible phased array technology to improve the reliability of ultrasonic testing results for various shapes and surface conditions. The artificial flaws in specimens with irregular surfaces were completely detected using the flexible phased array ultrasonic technology. Therefore, it can be said that the technology is applicable to field examination.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.116-125
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• 2018

Modified 9Cr-1Mo ferritic steel is a preferred material for steam generators in nuclear power plants for their creep strength and good corrosion resistance. Austenitic stainless steels, such as type 316LN, are used in the high temperature segments such as reactor pressure vessels and primary piping systems. So, the dissimilar joints between these materials are inevitable. In this investigation, dissimilar joints were fabricated by the Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) process with Inconel 82/182 filler metals. The notch tensile properties and Charpy V-notch impact toughness properties of various regions of dissimilar metal weld joints (DMWJs) were evaluated as per the standards. The microhardness distribution across the DMWJs was recorded. Microstructural features of different regions were characterized by optical and scanning electron microscopy. Inhomogeneous notch tensile properties were observed across the DMWJs. Impact toughness values of various regions of the DMWJs were slightly higher than the prescribed value. Formation of a carbon-enriched hard zone at the interface between the ferritic steel and the buttering material enhanced the notch tensile properties of the heat-affected-zone (HAZ) of P91. The complex microstructure developed at the interfaces of the DMWJs was the reason for inhomogeneous mechanical properties.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.19 no.7
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• pp.369-375
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• 2009

The spot weldability of dissimilar metal joints between stainless steels (AISI316) and interstitial free (IF) steels were investigated. This study was aimed to determine the spot welding parameters for a dissimilar metal joint and to evaluate the dissimilar metal joint's weldability, including its welding nugget shape, tensileshear strength, hardness, and microstructure. The fracture surface was investigated by using a Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The experimental results showed that the shape of nugget was asymmetric, in which the fusion zone of the STS316 sheet was larger due to the higher bulk-resistance. The microstructure of the fusion zone was fully martensite. In order to evaluate the microstructure further, dilution of stainless steels were calculated and imposed onto the Schaeffler diagram. The predicted microstructure from the Schaeffler diagram was martensite. In order to confirm the predicted microstructure, XRD measurements were carried out. The results showed that that initial weld nugget was composed of austenite and martensite.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.302-307
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• 2013

A5J32-T4 and A5052-H32 dissimilar aluminum alloy plates with thickness of 1.6 and 1.5 mm were welded by friction stir lap welding (FSLW). The FSLW were studied using different probe length tool and various welding conditions which is rotation speed of 1000, 1500 rpm and welding speed of 100 to 600 mm/min and material arrangement, respectively. The effects of plunge depth of tool and welding conditions on tensile properties and weld nugget formation. The results showed that three type nugget shapes such as hooking, void, sound have been observed with revolutionary pitch. This plunge depth and material arrangement were found to effect on the void and hooking formation, which in turn significantly influenced the mechanical properties. The maximum joint efficiency of the FSLWed plates was about 90% compared to base metal, A5052-H32 when the A5052-H32 was positioned upper plate and plunge depth was positioned at near interface between upper and lower plates.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.759-766
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• 2018

Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is a solid-state process, where the objects are joined together without reaching their melting point. It has been shown that this method is a suitable way to join dissimilar aluminium alloys. The current article employed hole drilling technique to measure the residual stress distribution experimentally in different zones of dissimilar aluminium alloys AA6061-T6 and AA7075-T6 Butt welded using FSW. Results are compared with those of similar AA6061-T6 plates joined using a conventional fusion welding method called tungsten inert gas (TIG). Also, the evolution of the residual stresses in the thickness direction was investigated, and it was found that the maximum residual stresses are below the yield strength of the material in the shoulder region. It was also revealed that the longitudinal residual stresses in the joint were much larger than the transverse residual stresses. Meanwhile, Vickers micro hardness measurements were performed in the cross-section of the samples. The largest hardness values were observed in the stir zone (SZ) adjacent to the advancing side whereas low hardness values were measured at the HAZ of both alloys and the SZ adjacent to the retreating side.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.59-59
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• 2010

Friction stir welding has become a viable and important manufacturing alternative or fabrication component, especially in aerospace and automobile applications involving aluminium alloys. In recent years, there is an increasing interest for FSW of dissimilar metals and alloys, particularly systems which are difficult to weld by conventional, thermal (or fusion) welding. In this study we tried to analyse the complex heat distribution occurring in TIG assisted FSW of dissimilar butt joint (STS304 and Al6061). For this, an analytical model for heat generation by FSW based on contact conditions has been developed. The heat input was calculated considering the coefficient of friction and slip factor between each work piece material with the tool material. The thermal model is used to generate the temperature characteristics curve, which successfully predicts the maximum welding temperature in each alloys. The analysis was carried out using the in-house solver.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.54-61
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• 2013

This paper reports mild steel(SPHC) and stainless steel(STS304) sheets commonly used for railroad cars or commercial vehicles such as in the automobile and shipbuilding industries. The sheets are used in these applications, which are mainly fabricated using the shielded metal arc welding(SMAW) of dissimilar materials. It also reports an interesting application of Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy(LIBS) in order to determine the elemental composition diffusion of SPHC and STS304. Arc blow produced by magnetic force during the electric arc welding prevents the formation from a sound weldment. In particular, the mechanical properties of the joint are influenced by not only by geometrical and mechanical factors but also the welding conditions for the arc welded joint. Therefore, the mechanical properties and performance are evaluated by performing a physicochemical component analysis. And they increase in accordance with content of elements and microstructure in mild steel. As results, appropriate range for magnetic fields could be achieved. Therefore, the effect of magnetic force in a butt weld of mild steel plates was investigated by comparing to the measured data.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.13 no.1 s.31
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• pp.1-10
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• 1999

The engine exhaustive valve became essential as the important element. The dissimmilar welding method of exhaustive valve head to stem was asked for manufacturing the engine exhaustive valve, for which the electric resistance are welding has been conventionally used, resulting in poor quality of the welded joint. In this paper, not only the development of optimizing of friction welding with more reliability and more applicability but also the development of in-process real-time weld qudlity(such as strength and toughness) evaluation technique by acoustic emission for friction welding of the engine exhaustive valve(SUH3-SUH35 dissimilar steels) were perfomed. The high temperature(500, 500, 600$^{circ}$C) creep properties prediction of the friction welded joint of SUH3-SUH35 was investigated relating to the initial strain meethod(ISM) as a new approach, resulting in obtaining an experimental equation of creep life prediction.