• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.197-204
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• 2021

In this study, the well-known non-destructive acoustic emission (AE) and electrical resistivity methods were employed to predict quantitative damage in the silo structure of the Wolsong Low and Intermediate Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Center (WLDC), Gyeongju, South Korea. Brazilian tensile test was conducted with a fully saturated specimen with a composition identical to that of the WLDC silo concrete. Bi-axial strain gauges, AE sensors, and electrodes were attached to the surface of the specimen to monitor changes. Both the AE hit and electrical resistance values helped in the anticipation of imminent specimen failure, which was further confirmed using a strain gauge. The quantitative damage (or damage variable) was defined according to the AE hits and electrical resistance and analyzed with stress ratio variations. Approximately 75% of the damage occurred when the stress ratio exceeded 0.5. Quantitative damage from AE hits and electrical resistance showed a good correlation (R = 0.988, RMSE = 0.044). This implies that AE and electrical resistivity can be complementarily used for damage assessment of the structure. In future, damage to dry and heated specimens will be examined using AE hits and electrical resistance, and the results will be compared with those from this study.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.29 no.4 s.235
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• pp.600-605
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• 2005

In this study, the ring tensile test at high temperature was suggested to evaluate the hoop tensile properties of small tube such as the cladding in the nuclear reactor Using the Arsene's ring model, the ring tensile test was performed and the test data were calibrated. From the result of the ring test with strain gauge and the numerical analysis with 1/8 model, LCRR(load-displacement conversion relationship of ring specimen) was determined. We could obtain the hoop tensile properties by means of applying the LCRR to the calibrated data of the ring tensile test. A few difference was observed in view of the shape of fractured surface and the fracture mechanism between at the high temperature and at the room temperature.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.18-26
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• 2017

This work proposes an alternative pipe wall-thinning inspection method based on change of eigenfrequencies of shell vibration modes in wall-thinned pipes. It takes much time to detect wall-thinning of pipes using ultrasonic thickness gauge and only a limited number of pipes are under regular inspection. In a pipe with locally decreased thickness, stiffness varies along circumferential direction and natural frequencies of shell vibration modes of the pipe change or frequencies of same modes bifurcate into two different values. Therefore, one can monitor pipe wall-thinning by measuring change of natural frequencies or estimate wall-thinning shape qualitatively. The feasibility of the proposed method was studied by FE vibration analysis for wall-thinned pipes. Modal testing was also carried out for the pipes with artificial wall-thinned section to verify the working performance of the suggested technique.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.46-52
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• 2019

This work proposes a noncontact ultrasonic transducer for detecting wall-thinning of containment liner plates of nuclear power plants by measuring their thickness without physical contact. Because the containment liner plate is designed to prevent atmospheric leakage of radioactive substances under severe nuclear accident, its wall-thinning inspection is important for safety of nuclear power plants. Wall-thinning investigation of containment liner plates have been carried out by measuring their thickness with contact-type ultrasonic thickness gauge by inspectors and needs a lot of time and cost. As an alternative, an electromagnetic acoustic transducer measuring precisely thickness of containment liner plates without any physical contact or couplant was suggested in this research. A transducer generating and measuring shear ultrasonic waves in thickness direction was designed and wave field produced by the transducer was analyzed to verify the design. The working performance of the suggested transducer was tested with carbon steel plate specimens with various thicknesses. The test result shows that the proposed transducer can measure thickness of the specimens precisely without any couplant and implies that swift scanning of wall-thinning of containment liner plates will be possible with the proposed transducer.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.654-659
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• 2018

In this study, continuous long-term observation is implemented with an ocean radar. Ocean radar conducts remote observation (combined) with ground-based radars, which enable a series of simultaneous observations of an extensive range of the coast with high frequency. An ocean radar for continuous long-term observation is operated at Samcheok on the east coast of Korea. Samcheok experienced tsunami damage in recent years and is the location of a nuclear power plant. In order to examine the reliability of the ocean radar, a pressure-type wave gauge, ultrasonic wave gauge, and ocean buoy are installed for the purpose of data comparison and verification. The ocean radar used in this study is an array-type HF-RADAR named WERA (WavE RAdar). The analysis of the data obtained from continuous long-term observations showed that the radar observations were in agreement with more than 90% of the wave data collected within a 25 km range from the center of two sites. Less than 1% of the entire observation data was unmeasured by the time series analysis. As a result of comparing the radar data with the direct observations made by the wave gauge, it was inferred that the RMS deviation is less than 20cm and the correlation coefficient was in the range of 0.84 ~ 0.87. Moreover, supported by such observations, a comprehensive monitoring system is being developed to provide the public with real-time reports on waves and currents via the internet.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.185-201
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• 2018

Nuclear power plants(NPP) are constructed and operated to ensure safety against natural disasters and man-made disasters in all processes including site selection, site survey, design, construction, and operation. This paper will introduce a series of efforts conducted in Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co. Ltd., to assure the safety of nuclear power plant against earthquakes and other natural hazards. In particular, the present status of the earthquake, fault, and slope safety monitoring system for nuclear power plants is introduced. A earthquake observatory network for the NPP sites has been built up for nuclear safety and providing adequate seismic design standards for NPP sites by monitoring seismicity in and around NPPs since 1999. The Eupcheon Fault Monitoring System, composed of a strainmeter, seismometer, creepmeter, Global Positioning System, and groundwater meter, was installed to assess the safety of the Wolsung Nuclear Power Plant against earthquakes by monitoring the short- and long-term behavioral characteristics of the Eupcheon fault. Through the analysis of measured data, it was verified that the Eupcheon fault is a relatively stable fault that is not affected by earthquakes occurring around the southeastern part of the Korean peninsula. In addition, it was confirmed that the fault monitoring system could be very useful for seismic safety analysis and earthquake prediction study on the fault. K-SLOPE System for systematic slope monitoring was successfully developed for monitoring of the slope at nuclear power plants. Several kinds of monitoring devices including an inclinometer, tiltmeter, tension-wire, and precipitation gauge were installed on the NPP slope. A macro deformation analysis using terrestrial LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) was performed for overall slope deformation evaluation.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.151-156
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• 2001

Experimental frictional and wear characteristics of silicon graphite materials is studied in this paper. Those specimens are lubricated with high temperature and highly pressurized water to simulate the same operating condition for the journal bearing and the thrust bearing on the main coolant pump bearing in the newly developing nuclear reactor named SMART(System-integrated Modular Advanced ReacTor). Operating condition of the bearings is realized by the tribometer and the autoclave. Friction coefficient and wear loss are analyzed to choose the best silicon graphite material. Pin on plate test specimens are used and coned disk springs are used to control the applied force on the specimens. Wear loss ana wear width are measured by a precision balance and a micrometer. The friction force is measured by the strain gauge which can be used under high temperature and high pressure. Three kinds of silicon graphite materials are examined and compared with each other, and each material shows similar but different results on frictional and wear characteristics.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.12 no.10
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• pp.40-49
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• 1995

This paper presents the performance and problems in analysis method and testing system of Electronic Speckle Pattern Interferometry (ESPI) method, in measuring two - dimensional in-plane displacement. The anyalysis result of measurement by ESPE is quite comparable to that tof measurement by strain gauge method. This implies that the method of ESPE is a very effective tool in non-contact two-dimensional in-plane strain analysis. But there is a controversal point, measurment error. This error is discussed to be affected not by ESPE method itself, but by its analysis scheme of the interference fringe, where the first-order interpolation has been applied to the points of strain measured. In this case, it is turned out that the more errors would be occurred in the large interval of fringe. And so this paper describes a computer method for drawing when the height is available only for some arbitrary collection of points. The method is based on a distance-weighted, last- squares approximation technique with the weight varying with the distance of the data points.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2013.10a
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• pp.862-867
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• 2013

Torsional interaction between electrical network phenomena and turbine-generator shaft cause torsional stress on turbine-generator shaft and torsional fatigue fracture on vulnerable component, but the prediction of the torsional stress is difficult because the torsional stress is occurred instantly and randomly. Therefore continuous monitoring of the torsional stress on turbine-generator shaft is necessary to predict the torsional fatigue, but installing the sensors on the surface of the shaft directly to monitor the stress is impossible practically. In this study torsional vibration was measured using magnetic sensor at a point of turbine-generator rotor kit, the torsional stress of whole train of rotor kit was calculated using rotor kit's stress model and the calculated results were verified in comparison with the measured results using strain gauge at several point of turbine-generator rotor kit. It is expected that these experiment results will be used effectively to calculate the torsional stress of whole train of turbine-generator rotor in power plants.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.1124-1138
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• 2012

This study investigates Korean middle school students' perceptions as global citizens (i.e. ecological worldview, social and moral compassion, and socioscientific accountability) of Socioscientific Issues (SSI). We developed questionnaires that consisted of 20 Likert-type items to gauge their preceptions of the three different SSI contexts (i.e. nuclear power generation, bio-technology, climate change), and administered them to 225 9th grade students in Seoul. The results revealed that participants showed relatively high scores for ecological worldview but scored low on social and moral compassion across the SSI contexts. In addition, participants presented much higher scores for ecological worldview and socioscientific accountability regarding the issues of climate change. The participant responses indicated that they perceived more inter-connectedness with the environment and felt the responsibility of promoting sustainable development more to prevent further devastation in the context of climate change compared to nuclear power generation or biotechnology.