• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.1681-1688
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• 2019

In accordance with ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel (B&PV) Code Sec.XI Appendix. G, a postulated crack is located at the beltline of a reactor pressure vessel because the neutron flux at the beltline is higher than elsewhere. This means that the distance between the core and the semi-spherical bottom head is longer than the distance between the core and the cylindrical beltline. However, several Small and Medium sized Reactors have bottom heads with diverse shapes, including dished or semi-elliptical shapes, to satisfy the requirement and performance. So, the aim of this paper is to evaluate the effect of crack location on Pressure-Temperature limit curve. To do this, two types of postulated crack location, such as beltline and semi-elliptical bottom head, were adopted to derive the Pressure-Temperature limit curve. Also, parametric studies for neutron flux, crack shape and so on were performed. As a result, core critical temperature of semi-elliptical bottom head is found to higher than that of beltline even when they have same values of thickness and neutron flux. This result will be useful to enhance the understanding of Pressure-Temperature limit curve.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.153-163
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• 2003

Performed here is a comparative assessment study for the generation of the pressure-temperature limit curve of the reactor vessel. A round robin problem is proposed using the data available in Korea and all organizations interested in the generation of the pressure-temperature limit curve are invited. The problems consisting of 12 cases for cool-down are solved and their results are compared to generate a reference solution for the reference problem, which will be useful in the evaluation of the generation of the pressure-temperature limit curve in the future.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.498-513
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• 2001

Performed here is a comparative assessment study for the generation of the pressure- temperature (P/T) limit curve of the reactor vessel. Using the cooling or heating rate and vessel material properties, the stress distribution is obtained to calculate stress intensity factors, which are compared with the material fracture toughness to determine the relations between operating pressure and temperature during cool-down and heat-up. P/T limit curves are generated with respect to crack direction, clad thickness, toughness curve, cooling or heating rate and neutron fluence, and their results are compared.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.191-208
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• 2002

A comparative assessment study for a generation of the pressure-temperature (P-T) limit curve of a reactor vessel is performed in accordance with ASME code. Using cooling or heating rate and vessel material properties, stress distribution is obtained to calculate stress intensity factors, which are compared with the material fracture toughness to determine the relations between operating pressure and temperature during reactor cool-down and heat-up. P-T limit curves are analyzed with respect to defect orientation, clad thickness, toughness curve, cooling or heating rate and neutron fluence. The resulting P-T curves are compared each other.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.155-164
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• 1997

A reactor pressure vessel, which contains fuel assemblies and reactor vessel internals, has the thermal stress resulting from the cool-down and heat-up of the vessel wall in combination with the pressure stress from system pressure resulting in large stresses. The combination of the pressure stress and thermal stress along with a decrease in fracture toughness may cause through-wall propagation of a relatively small crack. Therefore, it is necessary to define the relations between operating pressure and temperature during cool-down and heat-up. In this study, theory of fracture mechanics for a pressure/temperature limit curve is investigated and a numerical procedure for generating it is developed. Plant-specific limit curves for the Kori unit 1 plant, the oldest nuclear power plant in Korea, have been obtained for several cooling and heating rates and their results are discussed.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.505-513
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• 2002

During heatup and cooldown of pressurized water reactor, thermal stress was generated in the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) because of the temperature gradient. To prevent potential failure of RPV, pressure was required to be maintained below the P-T limit curves. In this paper, several methods for constructing the P-T limit curves including the ASME Sec. XI, App. G method were explained and the results were compared. Then, the effects of the various parameters such as flaw size, flaw orientation, cooldown rate, existence of chad, and reference fracture toughness, were evaluated. It was found that the current ASME Sec. XI App. G method resulted in the most conservative P-T limit curve. As the more accurate fracture mechanics analysis results were used, some of the conservatism can be removed. Among the parameters analysed, reference flaw orientation and reference fracture toughness curve had the greatest effect on the resulting P-T limit curves.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.25 no.10
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• pp.1567-1574
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• 2001

In order to operate an RPV safely it is necessary to keep the pressure-temperature (P-T) limit during the heatup and cooldown process. While the ASME Code provides the P-T limit curve for safe operation, this limit curve has been prepared under conservative assumptions In this paper the effects of conservative assumptions involved in the P-T limit curve specified in the ASME Code Sec. XI were investigated. Three different parameters the crack depth the cladding thickness and the cooling rate, were reviewed based on 3-D finite element analyses. Also the constraint effect on P-T limit curve generation was investigated based on J- T approach. It was shown that the crack depth and the constraint effect change the safe region in P-T limit curve significantly Therefore it is recommended to prepare a more precise P-T limit curve based on finite element analysis to obtain P-T limit for safe operation of an RPV.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.1-8
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• 2019

The integrity of the Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) is affected by the neutrons bombarding the vessel wall leading to embrittlement. This irradiation-induced embrittlement leads to reduction in the fracture toughness of RPV materials. This paper presents a comparative study of typical Optimized Power Reactor (OPR)1000 reactor pressure-temperature (P-T) limit curves using the pre-2006 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) editions used in the power plant and the current ASME edition of 2010. The current ASME Code utilizes critical reference stress intensity factor based on the lower bound of static, while the Pre-2006 ASME editions are based the critical reference stress intensity factor based on the lower bound of static, dynamic and crack arrest. Model-Based Systems Engineering approach was used to evaluate ASME Code Section XI Appendix G for generating the P-T limit curves. The results obtained from this analysis indicate decrease in conservatism in P-T limit curves constructed using the current 2017 ASME code, which can potentially increase operational flexibility and plant safety. Hence it is recommended to use ASME code edition after 2006 be used in all operating nuclear power plants (NPPs) to establish P-T limit curve.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.205.2-205
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• 2001

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.57-62
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• 2005

The frost heaving pressure can be a problem for weakening of the railway roadbed material. This study was initiated to investigate the soils frost heaving pressure and physical characteristics(Liquid limit, permeability, SEM analysis) resulting from freezing and freezing-thawing cycle process. Therefore, upon freezing a saturated soil in a closed-system from the top, a considerable pressure was developed. Weathered granite soils, sandy soil were used in the laboratory freezing test which sometimes subjected to thermal gradients under closed-systems. The frost heaving pressure arising within the soil samples and the temperature of the samples inside were monitored with elapsed time. The degree of saturation versus heaving pressure curve is also presented for weathered granite soil and the maximum pressure is closely related to this curve. Based on the laboratory test results, fine-grained soils with strong attractive forces between soil grains md water molecules, and additional water is attracted into the pores leading to further volume changes and ice segregation.