• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.148-156
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• 2016

The paper deals with improvement of a piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer for measuring both pipe thickness and flow velocity. The transducer structure is based on the conventional transducers for measuring flow velocity by obliquely transmitting ultrasonic waves to the flow direction. The transducer invented earlier for measuring flow velocity and pipe thickness had an advantage of including only one piezoelectric disc, but for the thickness measurement the ultrasonic wave had to be reflected twice in a wedge material to be transmitted vertically to a pipe, and thus the wave signal was too weak. The transducer has been improved to transmit waves for thickness measurement vertically to a pipe without any prior reflection by electrically connecting two piezoelectric discs, one for flow velocity and the other for pipe thickness measurement. By comparing the measured results of specimen thickness with the improved transducer and conventional transducers, the accuracies of the improved one have been evaluated in the pipe thickness measurements.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.186-192
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• 2022

Flow accelerated corrosion (FAC) is a type of pipe corrosion in which the pipe thickness decreases depending on the fluid flow conditions. In nuclear power plants, FAC mainly occurs in the carbon steel pipes of a secondary system. However, because the temperature of a secondary system pipe is over 150 ℃, in situ monitoring using a conventional ultrasonic non-destructive testing method is difficult. In our previous study, we developed a waveguide ultrasonic thickness measurement system. In this study, we applied a waveguide ultrasonic thickness measurement system to monitor the thinning of the pipe according to the change in pH. The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute installed FAC-proof facilities, enabling the monitoring of internal fluid flow conditions, which were fixed for ~1000 h to analyze the effect of the pH. The measurement system operated without failure for ~3000 h and the pipe thickness was found to be reduced by ~10% at pH 9 compared to that at pH 7. The thickness of the pipe was measured using a microscope after the experiment, and the reliability of the system was confirmed with less than 1% error. This technology is expected to also be applicable to the thickness-reduction monitoring of other high-temperature materials.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.58-65
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• 2007

The arbitrarily-bended pipe is widely used in a heat exchanger system. Thus, the pipe bending process has important role in performance and productivity of heat exchanger system. The purpose of this study is to investigate the bending process for manufacturing of sound pipe. And, the spring-back effect and the variation of pipe thickness should be controlled effectively. The change of spring-back ratio and the thickness variation of pipe according to the change of bending radius, bending angle and pipe thickness are analyzed by FEM analysis. The analytic results are compared with the experimental data, accordingly the results show good agreement. The method of the analysis can be applied for manufacturing of precision bended pipe.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.36-43
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• 2022

Generally, in construction sites, the pipe support installation workers often use support pins of 9~10 mm which are much smaller than the safety standard sizes for work convenience. Although the safety certification standard thickness of the support pins is 11 mm, and the supervisors are often indifferent to this. Hence, products with far lower performance than the pipe support safety certification value of 40,000 N, which is applied in the supporting post-structural review, are used. Accordingly, this acts as a factor causing collapse accidents in the process of pouring concrete at the construction site. Therefore, this study performed compression experiments on new and reused pipe supports to determine how the thickness of the support pins affects the structural compression performance of the pipe support by considering the thickness of the support pins as a critical variable among various factors affecting the pipe support performance. In the course of the study, the compression test of the pipe support (V2, V4) for the new products showed that only 14 (58.3%) of the total 24 samples satisfied the safety certification standard value of 40,000 N, which indicates that more thorough quality control is required in the manufacturing process. Additionally, comparing the thickness of the support pins and their fracture shape shows that the pipes with support length of 4.0 m or longer are much more affected by the buckling of the entire length than the thickness of the support pins. Of the several factors affecting the performance of reused pipe supports, it was found that, similar to the new products, the use of support pins, with thickness of 12 mm rather than 11 mm, can satisfy the safety certification value more appropriately. Therefore, regardless of the state of usage, it could be concluded that it is necessary to use 12 mm products, whose thickness is larger than that of the safety certification standard value of 11 mm, to improve the performance of the pipe supports.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.81-88
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• 2001

This study proposed an analytical method to evaluate a local allowable wall thickness (LAWT) for locally thinned pipe subjected to internal pressure and bending moment. In this method, the stresses in the thinned region were calculated by finite element analysis and plastic collapse was applied as a failure criterion of thinned pipe. Using this method, LAWT for a simplified thinned pipe was evaluated with variation in axial extent of thinned area, and it was compared with allowable wall thickness provided by previous pipe wall thickness criteria. The results showed that the LAWT was lower, about 50%, than that calculated by construction code or ASME Code N-597, and it was higher, about 2 times, than that estimated by evaluation model based on pipe experiments. In addition, LAWT was decreased with increasing axial extent of thinned area and saturated with further increase in axial extent. And, the variation in LAWT with axial extent of thinned area depended on type of load, especially a magnitude of bending moment, considering in the evaluation.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.11-15
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• 2008

By considering manufacture and economic factor, the steel pipes have been employed for water supply pipeline with large diameter. The standard to decide a thickness of pipe was provided by the waterworks standard (Ministry of Construction & Transportation, 1992) in South Korea. However, there was no the systematic standard to confirm a thickness of pipe in it. Thus, it should be able to apply to unsuitable the Stewart formula for the buried pipe to design for an optimum thickness of pipe. In order to meet revised the waterworks standard (The Ministry of Environment, 1997), it has been considered both the ground condition and all of the stresses to compute a thickness of pipe. As a results, a method is suggested to determine thickness of pipe after comparing and validating the obtained results with the established results from the Stewart formula.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.28-35
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• 2021

The need for zero-energy building is increasing as a means of actively responding to climate change. Since pipe insulation is a factor that minimizes heat loss of cooling and heating facilities, it is necessary to check pipe insulation standards and prepare improvement plans of preparation for certification of zero energy buildings. In this study, domestic pipe insulation standards were checked to prepare new insulation standards based on energy performance. Through the development of a pipe insulation calculation program, the heat loss according to the insulation thickness of the piping for mechanical facilities was compared and reviewed. As a result, applying the insulation thickness of the KCS standard for the same conditions increased the heat loss by an average of 10% compared to the ASHRAE standard. For this reason, it is necessary to revise the pipe insulation thickness standard in consideration of heat loss due to thermal conductivity and pipe insulation thickness. Using the program in this paper, it is possible to design pipe insulation based on energy performance and help to determine the standard for pipe insulation thickness.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.7
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• pp.1463-1471
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• 2017

In order to monitor the pipe thinning caused by flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC) that occurs in coolant piping systems, a shear horizontal ultrasonic pitch-catch waveguide technique was developed for accurate pipe wall thickness monitoring. A clamping device for dry coupling contact between the end of the waveguide and pipe surface was designed and fabricated. A computer program for multi-channel on-line monitoring of the pipe thickness at high temperature was also developed. Both a four-channel buffer rod pulse-echo type and a shear horizontal ultrasonic waveguide type for high-temperature thickness monitoring system were successfully installed to the test section of the FAC proof test facility. The overall measurement error can be estimated as ${\pm}10{\mu}m$ during a cycle from room temperature to $200^{\circ}C$.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.32-40
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• 2010

This paper proposes the technique of estimating the pipe thickness using the measured group velocity. To measure the group velocity from the accelerometer data in the frequency domain, Wigner-Ville distribution is utilized, which interprets the waveform of the shock wave. Using this measured group velocity, this paper proposes the technique to estimate the thickness of pipes with the impact on the pipe. The group velocity is estimated by the modeling correlation between the group velocity and the thickness of the pipe based on the propagation velocities. The correlation model between thickness and group velocity has been proved through the real experiments. The measured group velocity in the frequency-domain is the maximum at the center frequency of the bending waves in the modeling of the group velocity. In addition to these, a smoothing technique for analyzing lamb wave Wigner-Ville distribution has been introduced to improve the reliability of the data acquisition.

• Plant Journal
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.65-73
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• 2011

This research has suggested a method to select pipe wall thickness by application of the value engineering to reduce the cost and quantity that are major part of construction materials. This research shows that the application of value engineering reduces the cost of piping materials by optimizing pipe wall thickness while maintaining process flow date of design pressure and design temperature. Based on this knowledge, the application of the value engineering will lead to the cost reduction and quantity reduction by effective selection of pipe wall thickness. The application of the value engineering will help the EPC companies to win a contract in the overseas plant market.