Seung Wan Woo

Evaluation of Fretting Fatigue Life for Steam Generator Tubes in Nuclear Power Plants

Studies on the strength and fatigue life of machines and structures have been conducted in accordance with the development of modern industries. In particular, fine and repetitive cyclic damage occurring in contact regions has been known to have an impact on fretting fatigue fractures. INCONEL alloy 600, 690 and INCOLOY alloy 800 are iron-nickel-chromium alloy having excellent resistance to many corrosive aqueous media and high-temperature atmospheres. These alloy are used extensively in the nuclear power plants industry, the chemical industry, the heat-treating industry and the electronic industry. In this paper, the effect of fretting damage on fatigue behavior for INCONEL alloy 600, 690 and INCOLOY alloy 800 were studied. Also, various kinds of mechanical tests such as tension and plain fatigue tests are performed. The objective of this study is to guarantee reliability of the facility applied in a power plant by comparing three materials in respect to fretting fatigue.

The Study on Effects of Thermal Aging of Dissimilar Weld Zone in a Primary Reactor Cooling System

In a primary reactor cooling system(RCS), a dissimilar weld zone exists between austenitic-ferritic duplex cast stainless steel(CF8M) in a pipe and low-alloy steel(SA508 cl.3) in a nozzle. Thermal aging is observed in CF8M as the RCS is exposed for a long period of time to a reactor operating temperature between 290 and 330°C, while no effect is observed in SA508 cl.3. An investigation of the effect of thermal aging on the various mechanical properties of the dissimilar weld zone is required. The purpose of the present investigation is to find the effect of thermal aging on the dissimilar weld zone. The specimens are prepared by an artificially accelerated aging technique maintained for 100, 300, 900, 1800 and 3600 hrs at 430°C, respectively. The various mechanical tests for the dissimilar weld zone are performed for virgin and aged specimens.

High Temperature Oxidation Mechanism of TiAl-W-Si Alloys

The oxidation of Ti-(43~52%)Al-2%W-(0~0.5%)Si alloys between 900 and 1050°C in air progressed via the outward diffusion of Ti ions to form the outer TiO2 layer, and the inward transport of oxygen to form the inner (TiO2+Al2O3) mixed layer, between which the intermediate Al2O3 barrier layer existed. Tungsten tended to diffuse inward to be incorporated below the intermediate Al2O3 layer, while Si outward to exist over the entire oxide layer. Both W and Si tended to be dissolved in the oxide layer, rather than forming independent oxides.

The Evaluation of Fretting Fatigue Behavior in Room Temperature for INCOLOY Alloy 800

Mechanical breakdown often comes from the fatigue in many structural parts and nuclear power plants. Among the fatigue phenomenon, especially fretting fatigue occurs in mechanical joints showing small relative movements between contact surfaces. Although the research was developed for one hundred years, occurrence mechanism is not clearly identified yet. INCOLOY alloy 800 is a iron-nickel-chromium alloy having excellent resistance to many corrosive aqueous media and high-temperature atmospheres. This alloy is used extensively in the nuclear power plants industry, the chemical industry, the heat-treating industry and the electronic industry. In this paper, the effect of fretting damage on fatigue behavior for INCOLOY alloy 800 was studied. Also, various kinds of mechanical tests such as tension and plain fatigue tests are performed. Fretting fatigue tests were carried out with flat-flat contact configuration using a bridge type contact pad and plate type specimen. Through these experiments, it is found that the fretting fatigue strength decreased about 50% compared to the plain fatigue strength. In fretting fatigue, the oblique micro-cracks at an earlier stage are initiated. These results can be used as basic data in a structural integrity evaluation of heat and corrosion resisting alloy considering fretting damages.

The Study on Mechanical Properties in Narrow-Gap Welds for SA312 TP347

Conventionally, shielded-metal arc welding (SMAW) process has been applied to join pipes of reactor coolant loop, which caused defects and lot of loss in time and cost due to excessive heat input in joining section. Recently, narrow-gap welding (NGW) process was introduced to overcome the disadvantages of SMAW. However, the application of NGW to nuclear power plant is not yet commonly used, because safety of NGW process is not fully proven. In the present paper, welded coupons are made of stainless steel. They are manufactured under different processes; general welding (GW), and repair welding after GW. Performed are various mechanical tests to investigate microstructure, tensile strength and so on. It is verified that the mechanical properties of stainless steel are slightly changed after repair welding process. It is also found from stress corrosion cracking tests that the failure time of repair welding is shorter than that of general welding.

Oxidation of SiOC Composite Having Dispersoids of Mo4.8Si3C0.6 and MoSi2

New ceramic composites that consist of the amorphous SiOC matrix having dispersoids of Mo4.8Si3C0.6 and some MoSi2 were synthesized, and their oxidation characteristics were investigated between 450 and 1050oC in air. The SiOC matrix was obtained by converting polymethylsiloxane via pyrolysis. The good oxidation resistance of the prepared composites originated from a thin, protective SiO2 layer formed on the surface. But the outermost oxide surface was porous, owing to the formation of the highly volatile MoO3, which was formed together with SiO2.

Evaluation of Mechanical Properties for Narrow-Gap Weld Zone in Reactor Coolant Loop

Conventionally, shield metal arc welding (SMAW) process was applied to join pipes of RCL, which caused lot of loss in time and cost due to excessive heat input and defects in joining section. Recently, narrow-gap welding (NGW) process was introduced to overcome the disadvantages of SMAW. However, the application of NGW to nuclear power plant is not yet common because safety of NGW process is not proven. In present paper, the welded coupons are manufactured under different welding processes in carbon steel. Then, microstructure observations and various mechanical tests are performed. It is verified that the mechanical properties of carbon steel are greatly changed after repair welding process due to applied heat flux, and that the effect of post-welding heat treatment is beneficial.

A STUDY ON FRETTING FATIGUE LIFE IN ELEVATED TEMPERATURE FOR INCOLOY 800

Incoloy 800, which is used within steam generator tubes, is a heat resistant material since it is an iron-nickel-chromium alloy. However, construction of a systematic database is needed to receive integrity data defecting insurance of specific data about room and elevated temperature fretting fatigue behavior for Incoloy 800. Accordingly, this study investigates the specific change in fatigue limitations under the condition of the fretting fatigue as compared to that under the condition of the plain fatigue by performing plain and fretting fatigue tests on Incoloy 800 at 320°C, real operating temperature and at room-temperature, respectively. The change in the frictional force is measured during the fretting fatigue testing against the repeated cycle, and the mechanism of fretting fatigue is investigated through the observation of the fatigue-fracture surface.

Fracture Toughness with Thermal Aging in CF8M/SA508 Welds

In a primary reactor cooling system, a dissimilar weld zone exists between cast stainless steel (CF8M) in a pipe and low-alloy steel (SA508 cl.3) in a nozzle. Thermal aging is observed in CF8M as the RCS is exposed for a long period of time to a reactor operating temperature between 290 and 330, while no effect is observed in SA508 cl.3. The aged specimens are prepared by an artificially accelerated aging technique maintained for 300, 1800 and 3600 hrs at 430, respectively. The specimens for elastic-plastic fracture toughness tests are prepared two types, which notch is created in the center of deposited zone and the heat affected zone of CF8M. From the experiments, the plastic-elastic fracture toughness values (JIC) with the increase of aging time decrease as the notch is created in the HAZ of CF8M, while that is different slightly as the notch is created in the deposited zone. Also, JIC values in the deposited zones are smaller than the HAZ of CF8M at all aged specimens.

Microstructure and Creep Behavior of BN/Al (-Mg) Metal Matrix Composite

Metal matrix composites (MMC) that consisted of Al (-Mg) matrix reinforced with initially added BN particles were fabricated using the pressureless infiltration technique. Initially added BN particles were partly consumed to make AlN, as new reinforcing particles. The other reaction product was MgAlB2 dispersoids. The creep behavior was investigated between 225- 275oC in air. Despite of the presence of the reinforcing particles, the creep resistance was found to be unsatisfactory due to the weak Al (-Mg) matrix.