Papers by Keyword: U-Bend

Abstract: Steam generator in a nuclear power plant is huge heat exchanger that transfers heat from reactor to make steam to drive turbine-generator. Failure of the steam generator tubes can result in the release of fission products to the secondary side. Therefore, accurate integrity assessment of the cracked steam generator tubes is of great importance for maintaining the safety of the nuclear power plant. This paper provides limit loads for circumferential through-wall cracks in steam generator tubes under combined internal pressure and bending loads. Such limit loads are developed on the basis of three dimensional finite element analyses assuming elastic-perfectly plastic material behavior. As for the crack location, both the top of the tubesheet and U-bend regions are considered. The analysis results can be directly applied to the practical integrity assessment of cracked steam generator tubes, because the comparison between experimental data and FE results shows a very good agreement.

Abstract: Used pipes in various mechanisms and structures are produced from raw material by extruding and drawing. The properties such as yield strength, tensile strength, and elongation of a pipe produced by these methods are different from the properties of their raw material. But designers use the properties of the raw material because the actual properties of the pipes are difficult to obtain from testing. Also, the pipe is used after it has been bent in a complex manner and cut to fit it to mechanisms and structures. The bending process, especially, induces deformation of the pipe’s section and residual stress, which are involved in the plastic deformation of the bended pipes. This residual stress affects the pipe’s properties, including its fatigue life. Therefore, it is very important to understand the residual stress of a material. But, the distribution of residual stress of a U-shaped pipe, which is examined in this study, is very complicated and cannot be measured exactly.

Abstract: Operating experience of steam generators has shown that cracks of various morphologies frequently occur in the steam generator tubes. These cracked tubes can stay in service if it is proved that the tubes have sufficient safety margin to preclude the risk of burst and leak. Therefore, integrity assessment using exact limit load solutions is very important for safe operation of the steam generators. This paper provides global and local limit load solutions for surface cracks in the steam generator tubes. Such solutions are developed based on three-dimensional (3-D) finite element analyses assuming elastic-perfectly plastic material behavior. For the crack location, both axial and circumferential surface cracks, and for each case, both external and internal cracks are considered. The resulting global and local limit load solutions are given in polynomial forms, and thus can be simply used in practical integrity assessment of the steam generator tubes, because the comparison between experimental data and FE solutions shows good agreement.