Papers by Author: Jae Do Kwon

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: The fatigue analysis and lifetime evaluation are very important in design procedure to assure the safety and reliability of the rubber components. The interest of the fatigue life of rubber components such as the engine mount is increasing according to the extension of warranty period of the automotive components. In this study, the fatigue lifetime prediction methodology of the vulcanized natural rubber was proposed by incorporating the finite element analysis and fatigue damage parameter determined from fatigue tests. Finite element analysis of 3D dumbbell specimen of natural rubber was performed based on a hyper-elastic material model determined from the tension, compression and shear tests. The Green-Lagrange strain at the critical location determined from the finite element analysis was used for evaluating the fatigue damage parameter of the natural rubber. Fatigue tests were performed using the 3D dumbbell specimens with different levels of maximum strain and various load. The basic mechanical properties test and the fatigue test of rubber specimens under the normal and elevated temperature were conducted. Fatigue life curves can be effectively represented by a following single function using the maximum Green-Lagrange strain. Fatigue lives of the natural rubber are predicted by using the fatigue damage parameters at the critical location. Predicted fatigue lives of the engine mount agreed fairly with the experimental fatigue lives a factor of two.

Abstract: The interest of the fatigue life for rubber components was increasing according to the extension of warranty period of the automotive components. In this study, the fatigue lifetime prediction methodology of the vulcanized natural rubber was proposed by incorporating the finite element analysis and fatigue damage parameter determined from fatigue tests. Finite element analysis of 3D dumbbell specimen and rubber component was performed based on a hyper-elastic material model determined from the mechanical tests. The Green-Lagrange strain at the critical location determined from the finite element analysis was used for evaluating the fatigue damage parameter of the natural rubber. Fatigue tests were performed using the 3D dumbbell specimens and rubber component with different levels of maximum strain and various load. Fatigue life curves can be effectively represented by a following single function using the maximum Green-Lagrange strain. Fatigue lives of the natural rubber are predicted by using the fatigue damage parameters at the critical location. Predicted fatigue lives of the rubber component for automobile vehicle agreed fairly with the experimental fatigue lives.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: The initial crack under fretting condition occurs at lower stress amplitude and at lower cycles of cyclic loading than that under plain fatigue condition. INCONEL alloy 600 and 690 are high–chromium nickel alloy having excellent resistance to many corrosive aqueous media and high-temperature atmospheres. In this paper, the effect of fretting damage on fatigue behavior for INCONEL alloy 600 and 690 were studied. Also, various kinds of mechanical tests such as hardness, 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 40~70% compared to the plain fatigue strength in two materials. In fretting fatigue, the wear debris is observed on the contact surface, and 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.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: A combined axial-torsional low cycle fatigue test was carried out to predict the fatigue life under in-phase and out-out-phase loading conditions for CF8M cast stainless steels. The Fatemi-Socie (FS) parameter which is based on the critical plane approach is not only one of the many methods but also the best method that can predict the fatigue life under a biaxial loading condition. But the result showed that, a biaxial fatigue life prediction by using the FS parameter with several different parameters for the CF8M cast stainless steels is not conservative enough but at the same time it was the best result so far. So in this present research, we proposed a new fatigue life prediction parameter (Park-Kwon parameter) by considering effective the shear stress instead of the FS parameter which considers the maximum normal stress acting on the maximum shear strain and its effectiveness was verified.

Abstract: A dissimilar weld zone exists between the pipe and nozzle in a primary reactor cooling system (RCS). Thermal aging is observed in cast stainless steel, CF8M used in a pipe as the RCS is exposed for a long period of time to a reactor operating temperature between 290 and 330°C. No effect is observed in low-alloy steel. SA508 cl.3 is used in a nozzle. The artificially accelerated aging specimens are prepared to maintain for a temperature of 430°C for 300, 1800, and 3600hrs, respectively. Then, various mechanical tests such as hardness, tension, impact test, are performed in virgin and aged specimens in order to determine the existence of dissimilar weld zones. The specimens for elastic-plastic fracture toughness tests are prepared for one type, where a notch is created in the heat affected zone of CF8M. From the experiments, it was found that J-integral values decrease as age increases.