• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.54 no.6
• /
• pp.2188-2197
• /
• 2022

To ensure the safety margin of a reactor pressure vessel (RPV) under normal operating conditions, it is regulated through the pressure-temperature (P-T) limit curve. The stress intensity factor (SIF) obtained by the internal pressure and thermal load should be obtained through crack analysis of the nozzle corner crack in advance to generate the P-T limit curve for the nozzle. In the ASME code Section XI, Appendix G, the SIF via the internal pressure for the nozzle corner crack is expressed as a function of the cooling or heating rate, and the wall thickness, however, the SIF via the thermal load is presented as a polynomial format based on the stress linearization analysis results. Inevitably, the SIF can only be obtained through finite element (FE) analysis. In this paper, simple prediction equations of the SIF via the thermal load under, cool-down and heat-up conditions are presented. For the Korean standard nuclear power plant, three geometric variables were set and 72 cases of RPV models were made, and then the heat transfer analysis and thermal stress analysis were performed sequentially. Based on the FE results, simple engineering solutions predicting the value of thermal SIF under cool-down and heat-up conditions are suggested.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.24 no.8 s.179
• /
• pp.2083-2090
• /
• 2000

In order to manage nuclear power plants safely and cost effectively, it is necessary to develop integrity evaluation methodologies for the main components. Recently, the integrity evaluation techniques were broadly studied regarding the license renewal of nuclear power plants which were approaching their design lives. Since the integrity evaluation process requires special knowledges and complicated calculation procedures, it has been allowed only to experts in the specified area. In this paper, an integrity evaluation system for reactor pressure vessel was developed. RVIES(Reactor Vessel Integrity Evaluation System) provides four specific integrity evaluation procedures covering PTS(Pressurized Thermal Shock) analysis, P-T(Pressure-Temperature) limit curve generation, USE(Upper Shelf Energy) analysis and Fatigue analysis. Each module was verified by comparing with published results.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.71-76
• /
• 2019

Actual stress distributions in the nozzle of a pressure vessel may not be in plane strain condition, implying that the crack-tip constraint condition may be relaxed in the nozzle. In this paper, a methodology for evaluating the fracture toughness of the ASME Code is presented considering the relaxation of the constraint effect in the nozzle of the reactor pressure vessel. The crack-tip constraint effect is quantified by the T-stress. The equation, which represent the relation between the fracture toughness in the lower constraint condition and the plane strain fracture toughness, is derived using the T-stress. This equation is similar to the method for evaluating the fracture toughness of the Master Curve for low constraint conditions. As a result of evaluating the fracture toughness considering the constraint effect in the reactor inlet, outlet and direct injection nozzles using the proposed equation, it was confirmed that the fracture toughness in the nozzles is higher than the plane strain fracture toughness. Applying the proposed evaluation methodology, it is possible to reflect the relaxation of the constraint effect in the nozzles of the reactor pressure vessel, therefore, the safe operation area on the pressure-temperature limit curve can be prevented from being excessively limited.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.48 no.2
• /
• pp.545-553
• /
• 2016

The failure probabilities of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) for low temperature over-pressurization (LTOP) and cool-down transients are calculated in this study. For the cool-down transient, a pressure-temperature limit curve is generated in accordance with Section XI, Appendix G of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) code, from which safety margin factors are deliberately removed for the probabilistic fracture mechanics analysis. Then, sensitivity analyses are conducted to understand the effects of some input parameters. For the LTOP transient, the failure of the RPV mostly occurs during the period of the abrupt pressure rise. For the cool-down transient, the decrease of the fracture toughness with temperature and time plays a main role in RPV failure at the end of the cool-down process. As expected, the failure probability increases with increasing fluence, Cu and Ni contents, and initial reference temperature-nil ductility transition ($RT_{NDT}$). The effect of warm prestressing on the vessel failure probability for LTOP is not significant because most of the failures happen before the stress intensity factor reaches the peak value while its effect reduces the failure probability by more than one order of magnitude for the cool-down transient.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
• /
• 2005.05a
• /
• pp.873-874
• /
• 2005

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.32 no.9
• /
• pp.740-753
• /
• 2008

The conventional Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (C-SHPB) technique with aluminum pressure bars to achieve a closer impedance match between the pressure bars and the specimen materials such as hot temperature degraded POM (Poly Oxy Methylene) and PP (Poly Propylene) to obtain more distinguishable experimental signals is used to obtain a dynamic behavior of material deformation under a high strain rate loading condition. An experimental modification with Pulse shaper is introduced to reduce the nonequilibrium on the dynamic material response during a short test period to increase the rise time of the incident pulse for two polymeric materials. For the dynamic stress strain curve obtained from SHPB experiment under high strain rate, the Johnson-Cook model is applied as a constitutive equation, and we verify the applicability of this constitutive equation to the probabilistic reliability estimation method. The methodology to estimate the reliability using the probabilistic method such as the FORM and the SORM has been proposed, after compose the limit state function using Johnson-Cook model. It is found that the failure probability estimated by using the SORM is more reliable than those of the FORM, and the failure probability increases with the increase of applied stress. Moreover, it is noted that the parameters of Johnson-Cook model such as A and n, and applied stress affect the failure probability more than the other random variables according to the sensitivity analysis.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.553-558
• /
• 2012

A simple new method was developed for the determination of betaine in Fructus Lycii using hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography with evaporative light scattering detection (HILIC-ELSD). Good chromatographic separation and reasonable betaine retention was achieved on a Kinetex HILIC column ($2.1{\times}100mm$, $2.6{\mu}m$) packed with fused-core particle. The mobile phase consisted of (A) acetonitrile and (B) 10 mM ammonium formate (pH 3.0)/acetonitrile (90/10, v/v). It was used with gradient elution at a flow rate of 0.7 mL/min. The column temperature was set at $27.5^{\circ}C$ and the injection volume was $10{\mu}L$. The ELSD drift tube temperature was $50^{\circ}C$ and the nebulizing gas (nitrogen) pressure was 3.0 bar. Stachydrine, a zwitterionic compound, was used as an internal standard. Calibration curve over $10-250{\mu}g/mL$ showed good linearity ($R^2$ > 0.9992) and betaine in the 70% methanol extract of Fructus Lycii was well separated from other peaks. Intraand inter-day precision ranged from 1.1 to 3.0% and from 2.4 to 5.3%, respectively, while intra- and inter-day accuracy ranged from 100.0 to 107.0% and from 94.3 to 103.9%, respectively. The limit of quantification (LOQ) was $10{\mu}g/mL$ and the recoveries were in the range of 98.2-102.7%. The developed HILIC-ELSD method was successfully applied to quantitatively determine the amount of betaine in fourteen Fructus Lycii samples from different locations, demonstrating that this method is simple, rapid, and suitable for the quality control of Fructus Lycii.