• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.85-90
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• 2010

The infrared energy is emitted in the infrared wavelength range that corresponds to the surface temperature of a object which has temperature that is over the absolute the temperature(OK). The infrared thermography (IRT) is a non-destrnctive testing method that provides thermal video for the user in real-time by converting the infrared quantity that is detected by the infrared detector into temperature. The pipes of nuclear power plant(NPP) could be thinned by the corrosion and fatigue and the defect could lead to a big accident. For this reason, the effective non-destructive testing method is necessary. In this study, the relationship between the measured temperature and the defect depth or size of NPP pipes were recognized and that was applied to detect the wall thinning defects of NPP pipes.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.19-25
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• 2022

Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) should be designed to have sufficient safety margins and to ensure seismic safety against earthquake that may occur during the plant life time. After the 9.12 Gyeongju earthquake accident, the structural integrity of nuclear power plants due to the beyond design basis earthquake is one of key safety issues. Accordingly, it is necessary to conduct structural integrity evaluations for domestic NPPs under beyond design basis earthquake. In this study, the Level 3 LBB (Leak Before Break) evaluation was performed by considering the beyond design basis earthquake for the surge line of a OPR1000 plant of which design basis earthquake was set to be 0.2g. The beyond design basis earthquake corresponding to peak ground acceleration 0.4g at the maximum stress point of the surge line was considered. It was confirmed that the moment behaviors of the hot leg and pressurized surge nozzle were lower than the maximum allowable loading in moment-rotation curve. It was also confirmed that the LBB margin could be secured by comparing the LBB margin through the Level 2 method. It was judged that the margin was secured by reducing the load generated through the compliance of the pipe.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.9
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• pp.3342-3351
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• 2023

High-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipelines in nuclear power plants (NPPs) have to meet high requirements for seismic performance. HDPE pipes have been proved to have good seismic performance, but joints are the weak links in the pipelines, and pipeline failures usually initiate from the defects inside the joints. Limited data are available on the seismic performance of butt-fusion joints of HDPE pipelines in NPPs, especially in terms of defects changes inside the joints after earthquakes. In this paper, full-scale shaking table tests were performed on a test section of suspended HDPE pipelines in an NPP, which included straight pipes, elbows, and 10 butt-fusion joints. During the tests, the seismic load-induced strain of the joints was analyzed by strain gauges, and it was much smaller than the internal pressure and self-weight-induced strain. Before and after the shaking table tests, phased array ultrasonic testing (PA-UT) was conducted to detect defects inside the joints. The locations, numbers, and dimensions of the defects were analyzed. It was found that defects were more likely to occur in elbows joints. No new defect was observed after the shaking table tests, and the defects showed no significant growth, indicating the satisfactory seismic performance of the butt-fusion joints.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.398-410
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• 1998

Two-phase flow phenomena are observed in many industrial facilities and make much importance of optimum design for nuclear power plant and the liquid transportation system. The particular flow pattern depends on the conditions of pressure, flow velocity, and channel geometry. However, the research on drag reduction in two-phase flow is not intensively investigated. Therefore, experimental investigations have been carried out to analyze the drag reduction and void fraction by polymer addition in the two-phase flow system. We find that the polymer solution changes the characteristic of two-phase flow. The peak position of local void friction moves from tile wall of the pipe to the center of the pipe when polymer concentration increase. And then we predict that it is closely related with the frau reduction.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.1833-1838
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• 2003

In the nuclear power plant, emergency core coolant system(ECCS) is furnished at reactor coolant system(RCS) in order to cool down high temperature water in case of emergency. However, in this coolant system, thermal stratification phenomenon can be occurred due to coolant leaking in the check valve. The thermal stratification produces excessive thermal stresses at the pipe wall so as to yield thermal fatigue crack(TFC) accident. In the present study, when the turbulence penetration occurs in the branch piping, the maximum temperature differences of fluid at the pipe cross-sections of the T-branch with thermal stratification are examine

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.90-95
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• 2003

Fracture behaviors of pipes with local wall thinning are very important for the integrity of nuclear power plant. In pipes of energy plants, sometimes, the local wall thinning may result from severe erosion-corrosion (E/C) damage. However, the effects of local wall thinning on strength and fracture behaviors of piping system were not well studied. In this paper, the monotonic bending tests were performed of full-scale welded and unwelded carbon steel pipes with local wall thinning. A monotonic bending load was applied to straight pipe specimens by four-point loading at ambient temperature without internal pressure. The observed failure modes were divided into four types; ovalization, crack initiation/growth after ovalization, local buckling and crack initiation/growth after local buckling. Also, the strengths of welded and unwelded piping system with local wall thinning were evaluated.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.489-499
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• 2019

Elastic-plastic behavior of nuclear power plant elbow piping under seismic loads has been conducted in this study. Finite element analyses are performed using classical Bilinear kinematic hardening model (BKIN) and Multilinear kinematic hardening model (MKIN) as well as a nonlinear kinematic hardening model (Chaboche model). The influence of internal pressure and seismic loading on ratcheting strain of elbow pipe is studied by means of the three models. The results found that the predicted results of Chaboche model is maximum, closely followed by the predicted results of MKIN model, and the minimum is the predicted results of BKIN model. Moreover, comparisons of analysis results for each plasticity model against predicted results for a equivalent cyclic loading elbow component and for a simplified piping system seismic test are presented in the paper.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.22 no.1 s.79
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• pp.13-18
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• 2007

Structural integrity assessment of thin-walled pipes and pipe items has become one of the major issues in the nuclear power plant. ASME Section XI Code Case N-597-2 provides a criterion for acceptance of the pipes. But the code case has several limitations for application and sometimes gives too conservative or non-conservative results. So it is necessary to understand fully the technical bases of the code case. In the code case N-597, the allowable local thicknesses of thinned straight pipes are given for three different cases. Because of the different technical base, each case gives different thickness values and sometimes gives contradictory values. In this paper attempts were made in order to propose a unified rule for the allowable local thickness and in order to remove or relax the restrictions on the application of the code case. For this purpose elastic stress analyses were made using the finite element method and the stress results were examined. Based on the obtained bending stress results, a very simple procedure was proposed to obtain the consistent allowable local thickness for the thinned straight pipes.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.40 no.9
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• pp.821-826
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• 2016

The leak before break (LBB) concept is used in pipe line design for nuclear power plants. For application of the LBB concept, leak rates through cracks should be evaluated accurately. Usually leak late analyses are performed for through-thickness cracks with constant cross-sectional area. However, the cross-sectional area at the inner pipe surface of a crack can be different from that at the outer surface. In this paper, leak rate analyses are performed for the cracks with linearly-varying cross-sectional areas. The effect of varying the cross-sectional area on leak rates was examined. Leak rates were also evaluated for cracks in bi-material pipes. Finally, the effects of crack surface morphology parameters on leak rates were examined.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.361-368
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• 2015

Recently, the earthquake has been increasing a lot, damage of electric power facility has been serious as well. Nowadays, the importance of pipe support system such as Hanger, Brace, Snubber connecting the main structure have been emphasized. These devices can prevent pipe from damage so that reduce the vibration and shock acting on the pipe. For this reason, the FCD(Friction Concave Damper) was developed and has been expected to reduce the vibration on the pipe through the Friction Pendulum System. This paper was described the introduction of self-developed mechanical damper using the friction pendulum principle and the characteristic test was performed to verify the performance of the device. Additionally the test results have been compared with predicted F.A.P(FCD Analysis Program-self developed) results. As a result, reliability of design could be improved.