As the decommissioning of domestic nuclear power plants (Gori Unit 1 and Wolseong Unit 1) becomes more visible, many research projects are being conducted to safely and economically decommissioning of domestic nuclear power plants (NPPs). After permanent shutdown, decommissioning of NNPs proceeds through decontamination, cutting of main equipment, waste disposal and site restoration stages. And various technologies are applied at each stage. In particular, remote cutting of neutron induced structures (RV, RVI, etc.) is a technology used in developed countries in the cutting stage, and remote cutting has been evaluated as a core technology for minimizing workers’ radiation exposure. Generally, remote cutting technologies are divided into mechanical/thermal/electrical cutting. Among various thermal cutting technologies, plasma arc cutting (PAC) is more economical and easily to remote control than other cutting technologies, and is also effective in cutting STS304 plates. PAC is a thermal cutting technology that melts the base material at the cutting area with a plasma arc heat source and removes melted material by blowing it out with cutting gas. The cutting quality depends on the stand-off distance and power (current), material thickness, cutting speed, etc., while double arcing will occur if the cutting conditions are not suitable. A monitoring system that can confirm double arcing during remote cutting is necessary because double arcing can reduce cutting quality, increase secondary waste (increase kerf and aerosol), and cause non-cutting. In this study, we used an ultrahigh-speed camera equipped with a band-pass filter to capture clear arc shapes, and measured voltage waveforms with a data acquisition system. We studied a monitoring method that can confirm the occurrence of double arcing by synchronizing the obtained arc shape and voltage waveform, and the effects of double arcing on the STS304 plates. The results of this study are expected to be helpful in the development of the remote cutting process using plasma arc cutting when decommissioning of domestic NPPs.

선박의 건조공정 중 강재의 절단과 곡 가공, 용접에 있어 화염의 사용은 필수적이다. 현재 조선소의 강재 절단과 가공 과정에서 는 아세틸렌이 화염 연료로 가장 많이 사용되고 있지만, 폭발 사고의 위험성과 상대적으로 적은 발열량의 한계로 최근에는 프로판 연료의 활용이 증가하고 있다. 하지만 프로판 연료는 상대적으로 가공 속도가 느리고, 가공 시 슬래그의 발생빈도가 높아 품질이 저하된다. 대체 연료로써 프로필렌이 주목받으며 가공 속도와 품질향상에 대한 기대가 증가하고 있다. 프로필렌은 발열량이 우수한 연료로 강재 가공 간 생산성과 가공 품질의 우수성을 갖추고 있다. 이에 본 논문에서는 프로판, 프로필렌 화염을 이용한 철판 가공 시 각 연료의 연소 특성을 분 석 및 비교하였다. 프로필렌 화염을 이용한 철판 가공 시 배출되는 온실가스와 유해가스를 프로판 연료의 배출량과 비교하여 저감효과를 실험적으로 확인하였다. 또한, 가공 연료에 따른 입열량이 선박용 강재의 기계적 강도 변화에 미치는 영향을 알아보기 위해 열 분포실험과 인장시험을 수행하였다. 실험 결과로, 대체 연료인 프로필렌을 사용할 때 프로판 연료에 비해 온도분포가 고르게 나타났다. 기계적 강도 실 험 결과로 인장강도의 저하는 관찰되지 않았으나, 변형률은 감소하는 경향을 보였다. 본 연구의 결과를 바탕으로 향후 실제 조선소의 강재 가공 및 절단과정에 적용하였을 때, 발생하는 문제점에 대한 분석 및 보완연구를 수행할 예정이다.

There is a growing demand for improving the welding quality by reducing the machining error and improving the quality of the machined surface in the beveling for the improvement of the welding groove of the thick plate. For this purpose, it is necessary to develop an automatic beveling machine that adopts a cutting method that replaces the conventional oxygen flame cutting method. In this study, the cutting characteristics according to the machining conditions were evaluated during the face milling applied to the thick plate welding groove. We measured and evaluated cutting force for the machining conditions such as cutting depth, feed rate, chamfer angle, workpiece material, and material of the tool. We expect that this study is used as basic data for designing the stiffness of the spindle, the strength of the fixture and the power of the spindle and the feeding device when designing the automatic beveling machine.

This paper considers a problem of optimizing torch paths to cut stock plates nested with open contours. For each contour, one of the two ending points is to be selected as a starting point of cutting with the other being the exit point. A torch path is co