• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.62-69
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• 2014

A huge number of carbon steel piping components installed in the secondary system of nuclear power plants are exposed to aging mechanisms such as FAC (Flow-Accelerated Corrosion), Cavitation, Flashing, and LDIE (Liquid Droplet Impingement Erosion). Those aging mechanisms can lead to thinning of the piping components. To manage the wall thinning degradation, most of utilities in the world predict the wall thinning rate based on the computational program such as CHECWORKS, COMSY, and BRT-CICERO, evaluate the UT (Ultrasonic Test) data, and determine next inspection timing, repair or replacement, if needed. There are several evaluation methods, such as band, blanket, and strip methods, commonly used for determining the wear of piping components from single UT inspection data. It has been identified that those single UT evaluation methods not only do not consider the manufacturing features of pipes, but also may exclude the data of the most thinned point when determining the representative wear rate of piping components. This paper describes a newly developed single UT evaluation method, E-Cross method, for solving above problems and introduces application examples for several pipes and elbows. It was identified that the E-Cross method using the length and width of UT data excluded the most thinned points appropriate as the single UT evaluation method for thinned piping components.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.40-47
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• 2011

KSNPs(Korea Standard Nuclear Power Plant) have been applied the break exclusion criteria to the high energy lines passing through containment penetration area to ensure that piping failures would not cause the loss of containment isolation function, and to reduce the resulting dynamic effects. Systems with the criteria are the Main Steam system, Feed Water system, Steam Generator Blowdown system, and Chemical & Volume Control system. In accordance with FSAR(Final Safety Analysis Report), a 100% volumetric examination by augmented in-service inspection of all pipe welds appled the break exclusion criteria is required for the break exclusion application piping. However, it is difficult to fully satisfy the requirements of inspection because 12", 8" and 6" weldolet weldments of Main Steam pipe line have complex structural shapes. To resolve the difficulty on the application of conventional UT(Ultrasonic Testing) technique, realistic mock-ups and UT calibration blocks were made. Simulations of conventional UT were performed utilizing CIVA, a commercial NDE(Nondestructive Examination) simulation software. Phased array UT experiments were performed through mock-up including artificial notch type flaws. A phased array UT technique is finally developed to improve the reliability of ultrasonic test at main steam line pipe to 12", 8" and 6" branch connection weld.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.173-178
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• 2012

To manage the wall thinning of carbon steel piping in nuclear power plants, the utility of Korea has performed thickness inspection for some quantity of pipe components during refueling outages and determined whether repair or replacement after evaluating UT (Ultrasonic Test) data. When the existing UT data evaluation methods, such as Band, Blanket, PTP (Point to Point) Methods, are applied to a certain pipe component, unnecessary re-inspecting situations may be generated even though the component does not thinned. In those cases, economical loss caused by repeated inspection and problems of maintaining the pipe integrity followed by decreasing of newly inspected components may be generated. EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) in USA has suggested several statistical methods, TPM (Total Point Method), LSS (Least Square Slope) Method, etc. to distinguish whether multiple inspecting components have thinned or not. This paper presents the analysis results for multiple inspecting components over three times based on both NAM (Near Area of Minimum) Method developed by KEPCO-E&C and the other methods suggested by EPRI.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.133.6-133
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• 2001

Reactor vessel is one of the most important equipment of Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) with regard to the nuclear safety. Thus reactor vessel must be examined periodically by certified experts. Currently, ultra-sonic(UT) non-destructive inspection is executed on reactor vessel. Two different techniques are used in this inspection. One is using the movable manipulator fixed with the support-guide placed on the vessel, and the other is using mobile robot moving in the vessel. Movable manipulator machine is very heavy, hard to handle, and very expensive. Mobile robot equipment is small and convenient but has a weak point on positional precision. To solve these problems we developed a reactor inspection system based on laser-driven mobile robot. This paper describes the main concept and structure of integrated inspection units and the feature of implemented units.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.118-120
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• 2004

The non-destructive examinations for Yonggwang unit 6 was conducted in four different fields, these are 1)all non-destructive inspections for components, piping weldments and structures, 2)automated ultrasonic inspection for pressure vessels weldments. As the results, there were no big indications, and all indications detected during inspection were evaluated as the metallurgical and geometrical non-reinvent indications form weldments. Especially for the weldment of pipes, PD(Performance Demonstration) was applied as a UT inspection method according to 1995 edition of ASME code Sex. XI, this resulted in improvement of the reliability of UT inspection.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.218-224
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• 2012

Liquid droplet impingement erosion (LDIE) known to be generated in aircraft and turbine blades is recently appeared in nuclear piping. UT thickness measurements with both A-scan and B-scan UT inspection equipments were performed for a component estimated as susceptible to LDIE in feedwater heater vent system. The thickness data measured with B-Scan equipment were compared with those of A-Scan. Thermal hydraulic analysis based on ANSYS FLUENT code was performed to analyze the behavior of liquid droplets inside piping. The wall thinning rate and residual lifetime based on both existing Sanchez-Caldera equation and measuring data were also calculated to identify the applicability of the existing equation to the LDIE management of nuclear piping. Because Sanchez-Caldera equation do not consider the feature of magnetite formed inside piping, droplet size, colliding frequency, the development of new evaluation method urgently needs to manage the pipe wall thinning caused by LDIE.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.288-288
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• 2000

Reactor vessel is one of the most important equipment with regard to the safety of nuclear power plant. Thus nuclear regulation requires its periodical examination by certified inspection experts. Conventional reactor inspection machines are obsolete, hard to handle, and very expensive. To solve these problems we developed robotic reactor vessel inspection system which are small, easy to use for inspection, cost effective, and convenient in operation. This paper describes the main features of Main Control System which is one part of robotic inspection equipment we developed.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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• 2013.11a
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• pp.486-488
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• 2013

In the earth more than half of the space filled with water. In that water most of the part is in the form of oceans. The ocean atmosphere determines climate on the land. Combining the Underwater Acoustic Sensor Network (UWASN) system with Internet Of Things (IoT) is called Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT). Using IoUT we can find the changes in the ocean environment. Underwater sensor nodes are used in UWASN. Underwater sensor nodes are constructive in offshore investigation, disaster anticipation, data gathering, assisted navigation, pollution checking and strategic inspection. By using IoT components such as Database, Server and Internet, ocean data can be broadcasted. This paper introduces IoUT architecture and and explains fish forming application scenario with this IoUT architecture.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.442-448
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• 2007

The ultrasonic inspection system for the expansion/transition area of steam generator tube was successfully developed. Variety of artificial flaw and real track specimen was tested using the UT system to verify the performance of the system. All artificial flaws of which through-wall depth larger than 10% was clearly detected by UT system. Measurement results of through-wall depth of flaws larger than 20% had good linearity and reproducibility with 3.27 of standard deviation. Results of real crack specimen test suggested that the detection limit of real crack strongly depends on the track morphology. A potential for measurement of PRL(percentage of remaining ligament) was recognized by the real crack specimen test.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.212-218
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• 2000

The importance and role of pre-/in-service inspection(PSI/ISI) for nuclear power plant(NPP) components are intimately related to plant design, safety, reliability, operation, etc. In this paper, for an effective and efficient management of large amounts of PSI/ISI data in NPPs, an intelligent database program(WS-IDPIN) for PSI/ISI data management of NPP was developed. WS-IDPIN program enables the prompt extraction of previously conducted PSI/ISI conditions and results so that the time-consuming data management, painstaking data processing and analysis in the past are avoided. Furthermore, development of ISI UT auto flaw evaluation and acceptance module based on ASME Code Sec. XI were presented. This module can be used for any angle beam examination from flat plate to spherical shapes as selected by the proper azimuthal angle. This program can be further developed as a unique PSI/ISI data management expert system.