• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.46-52
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• 2019

This work proposes a noncontact ultrasonic transducer for detecting wall-thinning of containment liner plates of nuclear power plants by measuring their thickness without physical contact. Because the containment liner plate is designed to prevent atmospheric leakage of radioactive substances under severe nuclear accident, its wall-thinning inspection is important for safety of nuclear power plants. Wall-thinning investigation of containment liner plates have been carried out by measuring their thickness with contact-type ultrasonic thickness gauge by inspectors and needs a lot of time and cost. As an alternative, an electromagnetic acoustic transducer measuring precisely thickness of containment liner plates without any physical contact or couplant was suggested in this research. A transducer generating and measuring shear ultrasonic waves in thickness direction was designed and wave field produced by the transducer was analyzed to verify the design. The working performance of the suggested transducer was tested with carbon steel plate specimens with various thicknesses. The test result shows that the proposed transducer can measure thickness of the specimens precisely without any couplant and implies that swift scanning of wall-thinning of containment liner plates will be possible with the proposed transducer.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.112-119
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• 2021

The failure mode of piping systems due to seismic loads is the low-cycle fatigue failure with ratcheting, and it was found that the element in which nonlinear behavior is concentrated and damage occurs is the elbow. In this study, to quantitatively express the failure criteria for a pipe elbow of SCH40 3-inch carbon steel under low-cycle fatigue, the limit state was defined as leakage, and the in-plane cyclic loading test was conducted. For the carbon steel pipe elbow, which is the vulnerable part to seismic load of piping systems, the damage index was represented using the moment-deformation angle relationship, and it was compared and analyzed with the damage index calculated using the force-displacement relationship. An attempt was made to quantitatively express the limit state of the carbon steel pipe elbow involving leakage using the damage index, which was based on the dissipated energy caused by repeated external forces.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.46-52
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• 2024

The structural safety of expansion joints for piping systems has been drawing attention owing to ruptures and leaks of water pipes caused by earthquakes and road subsidence at soft ground. In general, metal bellows are installed as expansion joints to prevent various damages in the piping system. In this study, the seismic performance of a valve chamber system was evaluated by performing earthquake shaking table tests. To validate the benefits to structural safety of metal bellows in connecting steel pipes to valve chambers, the seismic tests were conducted on expansion joints (bellows) and general pipping, and the results were compared for durability. Strain gauges were attached to measure the effects of the input motion. As a result of the shaking table test, it was confirmed that the strain of the valve chamber structure and inflow or outflow steel pipes were decreased in 1/100, 1/20 by applied to the expansion joints.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.322-331
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• 2017

District heating was first introduced in Korea in 1985. As the service life of the underground thermal piping network has increased for more than 30 years, the maintenance of the underground thermal pipe has become an important issue. A variety of complex technologies are required for periodic inspection and operation management for the maintenance of the aged thermal piping network. Especially, it is required to develop a model that can be used for decision making in order to derive optimal maintenance and replacement point from the economic viewpoint in the field. In this study, the analysis was carried out based on the repair history and accident data at the operation of the thermal pipe network of five districts in the Korea District Heating Corporation. A failure probability model was developed by introducing statistical techniques of qualitative analysis and binomial logistic regression analysis. As a result of qualitative analysis of maintenance history and accident data, the most important cause of pipeline damage was construction erosion, corrosion of pipe and bad material accounted for about 82%. In the statistical model analysis, by setting the separation point of the classification to 0.25, the accuracy of the thermal pipe breakage and non-breakage classification improved to 73.5%. In order to establish the failure probability model, the fitness of the model was verified through the Hosmer and Lemeshow test, the independent test of the independent variables, and the Chi-Square test of the model. According to the results of analysis of the risk of thermal pipe network damage, the highest probability of failure was analyzed as the thermal pipeline constructed by the F construction company in the reducer pipe of less than 250mm, which is more than 10 years on the Seoul area motorway in winter. The results of this study can be used to prioritize maintenance, preventive inspection, and replacement of thermal piping systems. In addition, it will be possible to reduce the frequency of thermal pipeline damage and to use it more aggressively to manage thermal piping network by establishing and coping with accident prevention plan in advance such as inspection and maintenance.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.268-274
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• 2015

Weld overlay was first used in power plants in the US in the early 1980s as an interim method of repairing the welds of flawed piping joints. Weld overlaid piping joints in nuclear power plants must be examined periodically using ultrasonic examination technology. Portable phased array ultrasonic technology has recently become available. Currently, the application of preemptive weld overlays as a mitigation technique and/as a method to improve the examination surface condition for more complex configurations is becoming more common. These complex geometries may require several focused conventional transducers for adequate inspection of the overlay, the original weld, and the base material. Alternatively, Phased array ultrasonic probes can be used to generate several inspection angles simultaneously at various focal depths to provide better and faster coverage than that possible by conventional methods. Thus, this technology can increase the speed of examinations, save costs, and reduce radiation exposure. In this paper, we explain the general sequence of the inspection of weld overlay and the results of signal analysis for some PAUT (phased array ultrasonic testing) signals detected in on-site inspections.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.78-82
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• 2010

The feeder pipe of Main Primary Heat Transfer System in Wolsong Nuclear Power Plant was inspected by the Ultrasonic Phase Array technique in 2010. It is the first time to apply this method to the construction at Nuclear Power Plant in Korea. The time required for UT technique is less than RT method. The UT method doesn't need to evacuate personnel who works nearby inspecting area and doesn't need to wait developing of film. For these reasons, the UT method is the fastest method among the volumetric inspections. As a result of the examination, it became clear that main defect of the feeder pipe is the Lack of fusion in the welded area. Moreover, the rate of defect was reduced gradually as improvement of welder's skill. If welding machine has problem, the defect has tended to same pattern(occurred same position in the welding area) but these defects were founded without specific rules. For these reasons, the creation of defect is dependent on the skill of worker not on the automatic welding machine. This evaluation of defect signal and collecting data would be useful to further examination in ISI.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.10 no.2 s.31
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• pp.61-67
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• 2006

We developed the ultrasonic phased array technique for obtaining ultrasonic images of electrofusion joints of polyethylene piping. And we inspected 4 cases at fields with this technique. First case is for the 300 mm diameter polyethylene electrofusion joint by using 3.5 MHz phased array sensor, second is for the 350 mm diameter saddle electrofusion joint, third is for the 400 mm diameter electrofusion joints and the last one is for the 400 mm diameter piping joints which will be used at 300 kPa suppling pressure.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.75-81
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• 2014

A simulation of eddy current testing has been utilized for predicting the signal characteristics to the various defects and developing the probes. Especially, CIVA which is a simulation tool dedicated to nondestructive testing has a good accuracy and speed, and provides a three-dimensional graphical user interface for improved visualization and familiar data displays consistent with NDE technique. Although internal validations have been performed by the CIVA software development specialists, an independent validation study is necessary for the accuracy assessment of the software prior to practical use. For this purpose, in this study, eddy current testing signals of ASME FBH calibration standard tube for bobbin probe were simulated using CIVA and the results were compared to the experimental inspected signals based on the relationship between each flaw signal in terms of amplitude and phase, and the shape of the Lissajous curve. And then we verified the accuracy of the simulated signals and the possible range for simulation. Overall, there is a good qualitative agreement between the CIVA simulated and experimental results in the absolute and differential modes at the two inspection frequencies.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.44-50
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• 2014

There were many flaw issues of reactor vessel head penetration in USA fleets. USNRC issued 10CFR50.55a to implement reactor vessel head penetration ultrasonic examination performance demonstration(PD) in US for enhancement of inspection reliability. After September 2009, all US utilities inspected their RVHP with PD qualified system. Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Company(KHNP) have developed reactor vessel head penetration performance demonstration system for ultrasonic test to apply for pressurized light-water reactor power plants in accordance with 10CFR50.55a since September 2011. RVHP configuration surveying and analysis, code requirement analysis, and performance demonstration specimen design were performed up to this day. Fingerprinting of manufactured specimen, development of test data management program, development of operation procedure, input of flawed data, and development of final report will be performed for the next step. This paper describes the development status of the performance demonstration system for reactor vessel head penetration ultrasonic examination in Korea.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.40-47
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• 2013

The capacity factor of nuclear power plant in Korea is the highest level in the world. However, the integrity assessment of nuclear power plant is depended on foreign country. Especially, most eddy current testing systems for inspecting steam generators in nuclear power plant are currently imported from USA, Canada, and so on. Therefore, the eddy current testing system can react more active and adaptive from economic and managerial standpoint for actual nuclear power plants in Korea is required. In this paper, an eddy current testing system for inspecting steam generators in nuclear power plants is introduced. Frequency generator, analog circuit, analog digital converter circuit, and digital control circuit are composed in eddy current testing system. A benchmarking of acquisition system and acquisition software, eddynet 11i made by Zetec, and modifications are carried out based on the test environment of Korea nuclear power plants. Finally, all eddy current apparatus are integrated to inspect steam generator tubes in nuclear power plants.