• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.353-374
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• 2014

Recent studies were dedicated to the realization of measurements on stay-cable samples of different geometry and static conditions as available at several facilities. The elaboration of the acquired data showed a a satisfactory efficacy of the dampers made of NiTi wires in smoothing the cable oscillations. A further attempt to investigate the applicability of the achieved results beyond the specific case-studies represented by the tested cable-stayed samples is herein pursued. Comparative studies are carried out by varying the diameter of the NiTi wire so that similar measurements can be taken also from laboratory steel cables of reduced size. Details of the preparation of the Ni-Ti wires are discussed with particular attention being paid to the suppression of the creep phenomenon. The resulting shape of the hysteretic cycle differs according to the wire diameter, which affects the order of the fitting polynomial to be used when trying to retrieve the experimental results by numerical analyses. For a NiTi wire of given diameter, an estimate of the amount of dissipated energy per cycle is given at low levels of maximum strain, which correspond to a fatigue fracture life of the order of millions of cycles. The dissipative capability is affected by both the temperature and the cycling frequency at which the tests are performed. Such effects are quantified and an ageing process is proposed in order to extend the working temperature range of the damper to cold weathers typical of the winter season in Northern Europe and Canada. A procedure for the simulation of the shape memory alloy behavior in lengthy cables by finite element analysis is eventually outlined.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.597-609
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• 2020

Accident Tolerant Fuels have been widely studied since the Fukushima-Daiichi accident in 2011 as one of the options on how to further enhance the safety of nuclear power plants. Deposition of protective coatings on nuclear fuel claddings has been considered as a near-term concept that will reduce the high-temperature oxidation rate and enhance accidental tolerance of the cladding while providing additional benefits during normal operation and transients. This study focuses on experimental testing of Zr-based alloys coated with Cr-based coatings using Physical Vapour Deposition. The results of long-term corrosion tests, as well as tests simulating postulated accidents, are presented. Zr-1%Nb alloy used as nuclear fuel cladding serves as a substrate and Cr, CrN, Cr_xN_y layers are deposited by unbalanced magnetron sputtering and reactive magnetron sputtering. The deposition procedures are optimized in order to improve coating properties. Coated as well as reference uncoated samples were experimentally tested. The presented results include standard long-term corrosion tests at 360℃ in WWER water chemistry, burst (creep) tests and mainly single and double-sided high-temperature steam oxidation tests between 1000 and 1400℃ related to postulated Loss-of-coolant accident and Design extension conditions. Coated and reference samples were characterized pre- and post-testing using mechanical testing (microhardness, ring compression test), Thermal Evolved Gas Analysis analysis (hydrogen, oxygen concentration), optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (EDS, WDS, EBSD) and X-ray diffraction.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.99-110
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• 1999

Settlement and consolidation time were predicted through systematic soil investigation at the delta of Nakdong river where the preloading method was applied. Field measurements were executed with well-selected instruments. As the results of the comparison, the predicted settlement on the sand layer of about 20m thick underestimated the observed one by 20%. This underestimation was due to the effects of vibration during installation of PBD, creep, the overestimated deformation modulus, and so on. For the clay layer of about 20m in thickness under the sand layer, an ID analysis for underconsolidated soil initially overestimated the observed settlement by 240%. However, when the laboratory compression curve was reconstructed and a conventional ID analysis for NC clay was applied, the re-calculated settlement of the clay layer was relatively similar with the observed one. And the predicted consolidation time was about 45% less than the observed one, because of different influencing factors.

• Magazine of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.28-35
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• 2008

The Burj Dubai Project will be the tallest structure ever built by man; when completed the tower will be more than 700 meter tall and more than 160 floors. While the early integration of aerodynamic shaping and wind engineering considerations played a major role in the architectural massing and design of this multi-use/residential tower, where mitigating and taming the dynamic wind effects was one of the most important design criteria, the material selection for the structural systems of the tower was also a major consideration and required detailed evaluation of the material technologies and skilled labor available in the market at the time Concrete was selected for its strength, stiffness, damping, redundancy, moldability, free fireproofing, speed of construction, and cost effectiveness. In addition, the design challenges of using concrete for the design of the structural system components will be addressed. The focus on this paper will also be on the early planning of the concrete works of the Burj Dubai Project.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.499-508
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• 2011

The paper briefs a fuel performance code, COSMOS, which can be utilized for an analysis of the thermal behavior and fission gas release of fuel, up to a high burnup. Of particular concern are the models for the fuel thermal conductivity, the fission gas release, and the cladding corrosion and creep in $UO_2$ fuel. In addition, the code was developed so as to consider the inhomogeneity of MOX fuel, which requires restructuring the thermal conductivity and fission gas release models. These improvements enhanced COSMOS's precision for predicting the in-pile behavior of MOX fuel. The COSMOS code also extends its applicability to the instrumented fuel test in a research reactor. The various in-pile test results were analyzed and compared with the code's prediction. The database consists of the $UO_2$ irradiation test up to an ultra-high burnup, power ramp test of MOX fuel, and instrumented MOX fuel test in a research reactor after base irradiation in a commercial reactor. The comparisons demonstrated that the COSMOS code predicted the in-pile behaviors well, such as the fuel temperature, rod internal pressure, fission gas release, and cladding properties of MOX and $UO_2$ fuel. This sufficient accuracy reveals that the COSMOS can be utilized by both fuel vendors for fuel design, and license organizations for an understanding of fuel in-pile behaviors.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.1-5
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• 2019

In the field of combined cycle power generation, thermal barrier coating(TBC) protects the super-heat-resistant alloy, which forms the core component of the gas turbine, from high temperature exposure. As the turbine inlet temperature(TIT) increases, TBC is more important and durability performance is also important when considering maintenance cost and safety. Therefore, studies have been made on the fabrication method of TBC and super-heat-resistant alloy in order to improve the performance of the TBC. In recent years, due to excellent properties such as high temperature creep resistance and high temperature strength, turbine blade material have been replaced by a single crystal superalloy, however there is a lack of research on TBC applied to single crystal superalloy. In this study, to understand the isothermal degradation performance of the TBC applied to the single crystal superalloy, isothermal exposure test was conducted at various temperature to derive the delamination life. The growth curve of thermally grown oxide(TGO) layer was predicted to evaluate the isothermal degradation performance. Also, microstructural analysis was performed by scanning electron microscope(SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) to determine the effect of mixed oxide formation on the delamination life.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.1236-1249
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• 2021

Although there are still controversial opinions and uncertainty on application of SiC_f/SiC composite cladding as next-generation cladding material for its great oxidation resistance in high temperature steam environment and other outstanding advantages, it cannot deny that SiC_f/SiC cladding is a potential accident tolerant fuel (ATF) cladding with high research priority and still in the engineering design stage for now. However, considering its disadvantages, such as low irradiated thermal conductivity, ductility that barely not exist, further evaluations of its in-pile behaviors are still necessary. Based on the self-developed code we recently updated, relevant thermohydraulic and mechanical models in FROBA-ATF were applied to simulate the cladding behaviors under normal and accident conditions in this paper. Even through steady-state performance analysis revealed that this kind of cladding material could greatly reduce the oxidation thickness, the thermal performance of UO₂-SiC was poor due to its low inpile thermal conductivity and creep rate. Besides, the risk of failure exists when reactor power decreased. With geometry optimization and dopant addition in pellets, the steady-state performance of UO₂-SiC was enhanced and the failure risk was reduced. The thermal and mechanical performance of the improved UO₂-SiC was further evaluated under Loss of coolant accident (LOCA) and Reactivity Initiated Accident (RIA) conditions. Transient results showed that the optimized ATF had better thermal performance, lower cladding hoop stress, and could provide more coping time under accident conditions.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.2094-2106
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• 2022

The solid-state core of a heat pipe cooled reactor operates at high temperatures over 1000 K with thermal and irradiation-induced expansion during burnup. The expansion changes the gap thickness between the solid components and the material properties, and may even cause the gap closure, which then significantly influences the thermal and mechanical characteristics of the reactor core. This study developed an irradiation behavior model for HPRTRAN, a heat pipe reactor system analysis code, to introduce the irradiation effects such as swelling and creep. The megawatt heat pipe reactor MegaPower was chosen as an application case. The coupled irradiation-thermal-mechanical model was developed to simulate the irradiation effects on the heat transfer and stresses of the whole reactor core. The results show that the irradiation deformation effect is significant, with the irradiation-induced strains up to 2.82% for fuel and 0.30% for monolith at the end of the reactor lifetime. The peak temperatures during the lifetime are 1027:3 K for the fuel and 956:2 K for monolith. The gap closure enhances the heat transfer but caused high stresses exceeding the yield strength in the monolith.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.4D
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• pp.387-393
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• 2010

This paper studies static crack growth of asphalt pavement using the extended finite element method (XFEM). To consider nonlinear characteristics of asphalt concrete, a viscoelastic constitutive equation using the Maxwell chain is used. And a linear cohesive crack model is used to regularize the crack. Instead of constructing the viscoelastic constitutive law from the Prony approximation of compliance and retardation time measured experimentally, we use a smooth log-power function which optimally fits experimental data and is infinitely differentiable. The partial moduli of the Maxwell chain from the log-power function make analysis easy because they change more smoothly in a more stable way than the ordinary method such as the least square method. Using the developed method, we can simulates the static crack growth test results satisfactorily.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.5A
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• pp.823-832
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• 2006

To ensure the serviceability requirements of PSC composite girder bridges, it is essential to predict the stresses and deformations of the structure under service load conditions. Stresses and deformations vary continuously with time due to the effects of creep and shrinkage of concrete and relaxation of prestressing steel. The importance of these time-dependent effects is much more pronounced in precast prestressed concrete structures built in stages than in those constructed in one operation. In this paper, time-dependent analyses for PSC composite bridges using 30m standard girders have been conducted considering with the variation of the times of introducing initial prestressing forces and casting concrete. A computer program has been developed for the time-dependent analysis of simple or continuous PSC composite girders and parametric studies are conducted. Based on the numerical results, it is investigated the long-term behaviors of PSC composite girder bridges and discussed the limitations of the current codes for the prestress loss.