Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
10128838 | Annals of Nuclear Energy | 2018 | 7 Pages |
Abstract
The cutting performance of thick steel plates and large size pipes with a 10â¯kW fiber laser was studied for the dismantling of nuclear facilities. First, thick steel plates of up to 100â¯mm were tried to be cut at a high speed. For the thickness of 100â¯mm, both stainless steel and carbon steel plates were cut at maximum cutting speeds of â¼30â¯mm/min. And narrow kerf widths of less than 5â¯mm were obtained for all cutting tests. Second, a 150-mm thick stainless steel plate near the cutting thickness limit was attempted to be cut. The specimen was able to be cut even with a low cutting speed of 3â¯mm/min. To the best of our knowledge, this thickness is the largest among the published reports with a laser power of 10â¯kW. And this corresponds to a cutting capability in which most thick structures in a nuclear reactor can be cut. In addition, large size stainless steel pipes were also attempted to be cut. For a 165â¯mm diameter pipe, it was possible to be cut at high speed by one scan at a speed of 50â¯mm/min and round trip scan at a speed of 100â¯mm/min. This result implies that high-speed cutting was also possible for most pipe-type components inside the nuclear reactor. As a result, our 10-kW laser cutting system showed very efficient cutting performance in terms of the cutting speed and thickness. Moreover, the cuttings showed narrow kerf widths of less than 5â¯mm even for very thick steel of up to 150â¯mm in thickness. In the future, it is expected that the results of this work will contribute to cutting thick metal structures as basic research data in the dismantling of nuclear facilities using a laser. In addition, it is also expected that this work will contribute to other industrial fields requiring a thick steel cutting technique.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Energy
Energy Engineering and Power Technology
Authors
Jae Sung Shin, Seong Yong Oh, Hyunmin Park, Chin-Man Chung, Sangwoo Seon, Taek-Soo Kim, Lim Lee, Jonghwan Lee,