• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.613-618
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• 2018

We are developing a shared remote control mobile robot for aerial work in nuclear power plants (NPPs); a robot consists of a mobile platform, a telescopic mast, and a dual-arm slave with a working tool. It is used at a high location operating the manual operation mechanism of a fuel changer of a heavy water NPP. The robot system can cut/weld a pipe remotely in the case of an emergency or during the dismantling of the NPP. Owing to the challenging control mission considering limited human operator cognitive capability, some remote tasks require a shared control scheme, which demands systematic software design and integration. Therefore, we designed the architecture of the software systematically.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.279-286
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• 2018

Austenitic stainless steels used in nuclear power plants mainly use pipes made of seamless pipes, which depend on imports. The manufacturing process and high cost are some of the problems associated with seamless pipes. Therefore, in this study, the corrosion characteristics of the seamless pipe and the SAW pipe were assessed to determine the safety and reliability of the SAW pipe in a bid to replace the seamless pipe. Microstructure was analyzed using an optical microscope and the degree of hardness was measured using a Rockwell B scale. Intergranular corrosion resistance was evaluated by ASTM A262 Practice A, C, and E methods. The degree of sensitization was determined using a DL-EPR test. Anodic polarization test was performed in deaerated 1% NaCl solution at $30^{\circ}C$ and the U-bend method was used to evaluate the SCC resistance in 0.01 M $Na_2S_4O_6$ at $340^{\circ}C$ and 40% NaOH solution at $290^{\circ}C$. Weld metal of the SAW pipe specimen showed relatively high degree of sensitization and intergranular corrosion rate. However, annealing to SAW pipes improved the corrosion properties in comparison to that of the seamless pipe.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.61-67
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• 2015

3D FEM modeling based on 3D CAD data has been performed to evaluate the efficiency of CP system in a real operating nuclear power plant. The results of it successfully produced sophisticated profiles of electrolytic potential and current distributions in the soil of an interested area. This technology is expected to be a breakthrough for detection technology of damages on buried pipes when it comes into combining with a brand of area potential earth current (APEC) and ground penetrated radar (GPR) technologies. 2D current distribution and 2D current vectors on the earth surface from the APEC survey will be used as boundary conditions with exact 3D geometry data resulting in visualization of locations and extents of corrosion damages on the buried pipes in nuclear power plants.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.239-250
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• 2008

If there is a water flow with a range of temperature inside a pipe, the wanner water tends to float on top of the cooler water because it is lighter, resulting in the upper portion of the pipe being hotter than the lower portion. Under these conditions, such thermal stratification can play an important role in the aging of nuclear power plant piping because of the stress caused by the temperature difference and the cyclic temperature changes. This stress can limit the lifetime of the piping, even leading to penetrating cracks. Investigated in this study is the effect of thermal stratification on the structural integrity of the pressurizer surge line, which is reported to be one of the pipes most severely affected. Finite element models of the surge line are developed using several element types available in a general purpose structural analysis program and stress analyses are performed to determine the response characteristics for the various types of top-to-bottom temperature differentials due to thermal stratification. Fatigue analyses are also performed and an allowable environmental correction factor is suggested.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.25 no.7
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• pp.1031-1038
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• 2001

In order to verify the analytical methods predicting failure behavior of cracked piping, full-scale pipe tests are crucial in nuclear power plant piping. For this reason, series of international test programs have been conducted. However, full-scale pipe tests require expensive testing equipment and long period of testing time. The objective of this paper is to develop a test system which can economically simulate the full-scale pipe test regarding the integrity evaluation. This system provides the failure behavior of cracked pipe by testing a wide-plate specimen. The system provides the failure behavior of cracked pipe by testing a wide-plate specimen. The system was developed for the integrity evaluation of nuclear piping based on the methodology of hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) simulation. Using this simulator, the piping integrity can be evaluated based on the elastic-plastic behavior of full-scale pipe, and the high cost full-scale pipe test may be replaced with this economical system.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.30-39
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• 2022

Maintaining structural integrity of major apparatuses in a nuclear power plant, including piping system, is recognized as a critical safety issue. The integrity of piping system is also a critical matter related to the safety of a nuclear power plant. The actual failure mode of a piping system due to a seismic load is the leakage due to a fatigue crack, and the structural damage mechanism is the low-cycle fatigue due to large relative displacement that may cause plastic deformation. In this study, in-plane cyclic loading tests were conducted under various constant amplitudes using specimens composed of steel straight pipes and a steel pipe tee in the piping system of a nuclear power plant. The loading amplitude was increased to consider the relative displacement generated in the piping system under seismic loads, and the test was conducted until leakage, which is the limit state of the steel pipe tee, occurred due to fatigue cracks. The limit state of the steel pipe tee was expressed using a damage model based on the damage index that used the force-displacement relationship. As a result, it was confirmed that the limit state of the steel pipe tee can be quantitatively expressed using the damage index.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 2022

When wall-thinning in a pipe occurs during operation of nuclear power plant, reinforcement of the pipe needs to be performed. Accordingly, the structural response of the piping system due to introduction of the reinforcement may be re-evaluated. For elastic structural analysis of the piping system with the reinforced pipe using finite element (FE) analysis, the stiffness of the reinforced pipe is needed. In this study, the stiffness matrix of wall-thinned pipe with pad reinforcement or composite reinforcement is analytically derived. The validity of the proposed equations is checked by comparing with systematic finite element (FE) analysis results.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06d
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• pp.110-114
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• 2001

A numerical analysis has been perfonned to estimate the effect of turbulent penetration and thermal stratified flow in the branch lines piping. This phenomenon of thermal stratification are usually observed in the piping lines of the safety related systems and may be identified as the source of fatigue in the piping system due to the thermal stress loading which are associated with plant operating modes. The turbulent penetration length reaches to $1^{st}$ valve in safety injection piping from reactor coolant system (RCS) at normal operation for nuclear power plant when a coolant does not leak out through valve. At the time, therefore, the thermal stratification does not appear in the piping between RCS piping and $1^{st}$ valve of safety injection piping. When a coolant leak out through the $1^{st}$ valve by any damage, however, the thermal stratification can occur in the safety injection piping. At that time, the maximum temperature difference of fluid between top and bottom in the piping is estimated about $50^{\circ}C$.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.1702-1707
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• 2007

The reduction of pipe-thickness induced by flow accelerated corrosion (FAC) is one of the most serious problems on the maintenance of piping system in nuclear power plants (NNP). If the thickness of a pipe component is reduced below the critical level, it cannot sustain pressure and consequently results in leakage or rupture. For this reason, wall thinning by FAC has been inspected in secondary side piping systems in NPPs. In this research Round Robin Test (RRT) was conducted to verify confidence of wall thinning measurement system in NPP. 12 inspectors from 3 companies participated and 23 specimens were used according to standard practice in RRT. The gage R&R analysis was introduced in regard to repeatability and reproducibility that are affected to measurement system errors. Confidence intervals of thickness measurement system were obtained.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.89-95
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• 2012

U.S. Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has developed CHECWORKS program and applied it to power plant piping lines since some lines were ruptured by flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC) in 1978. Nowadays the CHECWORKS program has been used to manage pipe wall thinning phenomena caused by FAC. However, various erosion mechanisms can occur in carbon-steel piping. Most common forms of erosion are cavitation, flashing, liquid droplet impingement erosion (LDIE), and Solid Particle Erosion (SPE). Those erosion mechanisms cause pipe wall thinning, leaking, rupturing, and even result in unplanned shutdowns of utilities. Especially, in two phase condition, LDIE damages a wide scope of plant pipelines. Furthermore, LDIE is the major culprit to cause such as power runback by pipe leaking. This paper describes the methodologies that manage wall thinning and also predict LDIE wall thinning area. For this study, current properties of two-phase condition are investigated and LDIE areas are selected. The areas are checked by B-Scan method to detect the effect of wall thinning phenomena.