Flow-accelerated corrosion in power plants. Revision 1
- Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States); and others
Flow-Accelerated Corrosion (FAC) is a phenomenon that results in metal loss from piping, vessels, and equipment made of carbon steel. FAC occurs only under certain conditions of flow, chemistry, geometry, and material. Unfortunately, those conditions are common in much of the high-energy piping in nuclear and fossil-fueled power plants. Undetected, FAC will cause leaks and ruptures. Consequently, FAC has become a major issue, particularly for nuclear plants. Although major failures are rare, the consequences can be severe. In 1986, four men in the area of an FAC-induced pipe rupture were killed. Fossil plants too, are subject to FAC. In 1995, a failure at a fossil-fired plant caused two fatalities. In addition to concerns about personnel safety, FAC failures can pose challenges to plant safety. Regulatory agencies have therefore required nuclear utilities to institute formal programs to address FAC. Finally, a major FAC failure (like the one that happened in 1997 at a US nuclear power plant) can force a plant to shutdown and purchase replacement power at a price approaching a million dollars per day depending upon the MWe rating of the plant. A great deal of time and money has been spent to develop the technology to predict, detect, and mitigate FAC in order to prevent catastrophic failures. Over time, substantial progress has been made towards understanding and preventing FAC. The results of these efforts include dozens of papers, reports, calculations, and manuals, as well as computer programs and other tools. This book is written to provide a detailed treatment of the entire subject in a single document. Any complex issue requires balancing know-how, the risk of decision making, and a pragmatic engineering solution. This book addresses these by carrying out the necessary R and D and engineering along with plant knowledge to cover all quadrants of Chexal`s four quadrant known-unknown diagram, as seen in Figure i.
- Research Organization:
- Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States); Electricite de France (France); Siemens AG Power Generation (Germany)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 10140572
- Report Number(s):
- EPRI-TR-106611-R1; ON: UN99003340; TRN: AHC29927%%2
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: Jul 1998
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
PWR TYPE REACTORS
BWR TYPE REACTORS
FOSSIL-FUEL POWER PLANTS
CARBON STEELS
PIPES
CORROSION
FLUID FLOW
EROSION
WATER CHEMISTRY
STEAM GENERATORS
DIAGNOSTIC TECHNIQUES
360105
210100
210200
200104
CORROSION AND EROSION
POWER REACTORS
NONBREEDING
LIGHT-WATER MODERATED
BOILING WATER COOLED
POWER REACTORS
NONBREEDING
LIGHT-WATER MODERATED
NONBOILING WATER COOLED
COMPONENTS