• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.107-115
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• 2018

To ensure the structural integrity of nuclear power plants, it is essential to predict the lifetime of Alloy 182 weld, which is used for welding in nuclear reactors. The lifetime of Alloy 182 weld is directly related to the crack initiation time. Owing to the large time scatter in most crack initiation tests, a probabilistic model, such as the Weibull distribution, has mainly been adopted for prediction. However, since statistically more advanced methods than current typical methods may be applied, we suggest a statistical procedure for parameter estimation of the crack initiation time of Alloy 182 weld, considering right-censored data and the covariate effect. Furthermore, we suggest a procedure for uncertainty evaluation of the estimators based on the bootstrap method. The suggested statistical procedure can be applied not only to Alloy 182 weld but also to any material degradation data set including right-censored data with covariate effect.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.462-467
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• 2011

In order to understand why annealing at $480^{\circ}C$ for several hour prevents the initiation of PWSCC, the residual stress variation with isothermal annealing at $480^{\circ}C$ and isochronal annealing between 480 and $800^{\circ}C$ in cold rolled Alloy 600 was investigated by the XRD method. The isothermal annealing decreased residual stress slightly in the rolling direction but not in the transverse direction, whereas the isochronal annealing for two hours increased residual stress. It seemed that the decrease in residual stress by isothermal annealing was due to lattice contraction by an ordering reaction because the isothermal annealing increased hardness. The effects of the isochronal annealing could be interpreted as the influence of thermal expansion and a disordering reaction.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.145-156
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• 2021

Ultrasonic Nanocrystal Surface Modification (UNSM) is a peening technology that generates elastic-plastic deformation on the material surface to which a static load of a air compressor and a dynamic load of ultrasonic vibration energy are applied by striking the material surface with a strike pin. In the UNSM-treated material, the structure of the surface layer is modified into a nano-crystal structure and compressive residual stress occurs. When UNSM is applied to welds in a reactor coolant system where PWSCC can occur, it has the effect of relieving tensile residual stress in the weld and thus suppressing crack initiation and propagation. In order to quantitatively evaluate the compressive residual stress generated by UNSM, many finite element studies have been conducted. In existing studies, single-path UNSM or UNSM in a limited area has been simulated due to excessive computing time and analysis convergence problems. However, it is difficult to accurately calculate the compressive residual stress generated by the actual UNSM under these limited conditions. Therefore, in this study, a minimum finite element peening analysis area that can reliably calculate the compressive residual stress is proposed. To confirm the validity of the proposed analysis area, the compressive residual stress obtained from the experiment are compared with finite element analysis results.