• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.194-202
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• 2010

Application of a stronger and more durable material for reactor pressure vessels (RPVs) might be an effective way to insure the integrity and increase the efficiency of nuclear power plants. A series of research projects to apply the SA508 Gr.4 steel in ASME code to RPVs are in progress because of its excellent strength and durability compared to commercial RPV steel (SA508 Gr.3 steel). In this study, the microstructural characteristics and mechanical properties of SA508 Gr.3 Mn-Mo-Ni low alloy steel and SA508 Gr.4N Ni-Mo-Cr low alloy steel were investigated. The differences in the stable phases between these two low alloy steels were evaluated by means of a thermodynamic calculation using ThermoCalc. They were then compared to microstructural features and correlated with mechanical properties. Mn-Mo-Ni low alloy steel shows the upper bainite structure that has coarse cementite in the lath boundaries. However, Ni-Mo-Cr low alloy steel shows the mixture of lower bainite and tempered martensite structure that homogeneously precipitates the small carbides such as $M_{23}C_6$ and $M_7C_3$ due to an increase of hardenability and Cr addition. In the mechanical properties, Ni-Mo-Cr low alloy steel has higher strength and toughness than Mn-Mo-Ni low alloy steel. Ni and Cr additions increase the strength by solid solution hardening. In addition, microstructural changes from upper bainite to tempered martensite improve the strength of the low alloy steel by grain refining effect, and the changes in the precipitation behavior by Cr addition improve the ductile-brittle transition behavior along with a toughening effect of Ni addition.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.413-422
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• 2014

Presented in this study are the variations of microstructures and mechanical properties with tempering and Post-Weld Heat Treatment (PWHT) conditions for SA508 Gr.4N steel used as Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) material. The blocks of model alloy were austenitized at the conventional temperature of $880^{\circ}C$ then tempered and post-weld heat treated at four different conditions. The hardness and yield strength decrease with increased tempering and PWHT temperatures, but impact toughness is significantly improved, especially in the specimens tempered at $630^{\circ}C$. The sample tempered at $630^{\circ}C$ with PWHT at $610^{\circ}C$ shows optimum mechanical properties in hardness, strength, and toughness, excluding only the transition property in the low temperature region. The microstructural observation and quantitative analysis of carbide size distribution show that the variations of mechanical properties are caused by the under-tempering and carbide coarsening which occurred during the heat treatment process. The introduction of PWHT results in the deterioration of the ductile-brittle transition property by an increase of coarse carbides controlling cleavage initiation, especially in the tempered state at $630^{\circ}C$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1996.05d
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• pp.182-187
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• 1996

Deformation characteristics of miniature plate tensile specimens have been studied to develop the thickness requirement and a correlation to estimate the mechanical properties of bulk material from miniature specimen data. The material used was a SA 508 C1.3 reactor pressure vessel steel and the thicknesses of miniature tensile specimens varied from ().12 m to 2 mm. The effects of thickness on the tensile deformation properties such as strength, ductility, and necking characteristics were analyzed. The yield and ultimate tensile strengths were independent of specimen thickness when the thickness was larger than about 0.2 mm. The uniform and total elongations decreased as the specimen thickness decreased. It was also observed that the uniform strain component in the width direction decreased with decrease in the specimen thickness, however, that in the thickness direction was rather constant in total thickness range studied. Based on this observation and a relationship between the necking angle and the ratio between strain components, a correlation between the uniform elongations of miniature specimen and standard specimen was derived. The uniform elongations calculated by this new correlation agreed well with the measured values.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.39-47
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• 2002

Performed here is an assessment study for deterministic fracture mechanics analysis of a pressurized thermal shock(PTS). The PTS event means an event or transient in pressurized water reactors(PWRs) causing severe overcooling(thermal shock) concurrent with or followed by significant pressure in the reactor vessel. The problems consisting of two transients and 10 cracks are solved and maximum stress intensity factors and maximum allowable nil-ductility reference temperatures are calculated. Their results are compared each other to address the general characteristics between transients, crack types and analysis methods. The effects of elastic-plastic material behavior and clad coating on the inner surface are explored.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.45-52
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• 1991

The purpose of a fatigue crack arrest desing is to prvent a fatigue fracture of machine and structure resulted from unstable crack growth. In all cases of load transfer to second elements such as stringers, doublers or flangers, crack arrest is possible; arrest occuring when the fatigue crack reaches the second element. In the present work, the possibility of crack arrest and the design criterion of fatigue crack arrest in the variable thickness plates are examined numericaiiy by using fatigue crack arrest thresthod $\Delta$K$_{th}$of SA-508 reactor vessel steel and stress intensity factor which was obtained in the previous work as a result of 3-dimensional finite element analysis for CT type variable thickness plates having discontinuous interface.e.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.1-6
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• 2017

Modern society has been experiencing by population growth and urbanization that bring, a change of eating habits which has occurred a various types of waste in a large amount. Even though these wastes are required an immediate treatment with difficulties unsanitary handling and existing waste treatment method are by incineration, fermentation, drying and etc. however a bad smell occurs after the treatment that need's a lot of energy in processing organic wastes with high moisture contents and wasteful and inefficient problem. The strength assessment of the organic waste agitating vessel is required in terms of safety due to the differences of loading on the shaft that was treated by agitating the mixture of food waste. The damage of agitating axis is depended on steam pressure, temperature condition and the force moment that exerted by the food waste. Thus the strength assessment and stability evaluation are very important, especially to handle a hard waste. In this study the rotation capacity of agitation is about 5 tons considering general structural rolled steel pressure vessel strength and steam pressure. The purpose is to estimate the safety and strength evaluation for a agitator axis and impellers according to the rotating angle of the axis under the condition of the 3.2 ton capacity reactor.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.337-350
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• 2016

Even though extensive researches have been performed for steam explosion due to their complex mechanisms and inherent uncertainties, establishment of severe accident management guidelines and strategies is one of state-of-the arts in nuclear industry. The goal of this research is primarily to examine effects of vessel failure modes and locations on nuclear facilities under typical steam explosion conditions. Both discrete and integrated models were employed from the viewpoint of structural integrity assessment of steel components and evaluation of the cracking and crushing in reinforced concrete structures. Thereafter, comparison of systematic analysis results was performed; despite the vessel failure modes were dominant, resulting maximum stresses at the all steel components were sufficiently lower than the corresponding yield strengths. Two failure criteria for the reinforced concrete structures such as the limiting failure ratio of concrete and the limiting strains for rebar and liner plate were satisfied under steam explosion conditions. Moreover, stresses of steel components and reinforced concrete structures were reduced with maximum difference of 12% when the integrated model was adopted comparing to those of discrete models.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.74-83
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• 1995

The accurate determination of the fast neutron flux/fluence onto the pressure vessel is an essential part of the reactor pressure vessel surveillance program. It has been reported recently that the iron cross section data in ENDF/B versions III through V might underestimate the flux/fluence of fast neutrons in steel structures such as reactor pressure vessel. In this study, for the comparison of iron data of ENDF/B-IV and VI we produced two 47-group cross section sets, CXFe-IV and CXFe-Ⅵ, which are based on Yonggwang nuclear unit-3/4 model and the iron data of ENDF/B-IV and VI, respectively. A comparison was made of the results obtained from DOT4.3 calculation using CXFe-IV and CXFe-VI. From the results, it was found that the fast flux(E 〉 1.0 MeV), which is important for the pressure vessel embrittlement analysis, increases by about 7.6％ at the inner wall and 20％ at the outer wall of the vessel, if the iron data are used from ENDF/B-VI instead of ENDF/B-IV.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.8
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• pp.1732-1741
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• 2020

The structural integrity of welded joints in the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) is directly related to the safety of nuclear power plants. The RPV is made from SA508-III steel in a pressurized water reactor. In this study, we investigated the effects of temperature on the tensile and fracture toughness properties of Chinese SA508-III welded joint in different sampling areas in order to provide reference data for structural integrity assessments of RPVs. The specimens used in tensile and fracture toughness tests were fabricated from the base metal (BM), weld metal (WM), and the heat-affected zone (HAZ) in the welded joint. The representative testing temperatures included the ambient temperature (20 ℃), upper shelf temperature (100 ℃), and service temperature (320 ℃). The results showed that temperature greatly affected the fracture toughness (JIC) values for the SA508-III welded joint. The JIC values for BM and HAZ both decreased remarkably from 20 ℃ to 320 ℃. The fracture morphologies showed that the BM and HAZ in the welded joint exhibited fully ductile fracture at 20 ℃, whereas partial cleavage fracture was mixed in ductile fracture mode at 100 ℃ and 320 ℃. The WM exhibited the ductile and cleavage fracture mixed mode at various temperatures, and the JIC values showed slight changes.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.9
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• pp.533-541
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• 2009

Materials used for a reactor pressure vessel(RPV) are required high strength and toughness, which determine the safety margin and life of a reactor. Ni-Mo-Cr low alloy steel shows better mechanical properties than existing RPV steels due to higher Ni and Cr contents compared to the existing RPV steels. The present study focuses on effects of Ni, Cr contents on the cleavage fracture toughness of Ni-Mo-Cr low alloy steels in the transition temperature region. The fracture toughness was characterized by a 3-point bend test of precracked Charpy V-notch(PCVN) specimens based on ASTM E1921-08. The test results indicated that the fracture toughness was considerably improved with an increase of Ni and Cr contents. Especially, control of Cr content was more effective in improving fracture toughness than manipulating Ni content, though Charpy impact toughness was changed more extensively by adjusting Ni content. These differences between changes in the fracture toughness and that in the impact toughness were derived from microstructural features, such as martensite lath size and carbide precipitation behavior.