Dr. Nobuyuki Fujisawa, who has devoted significant research to a disastrous pipeline break at a Japanese nuclear power facility, will speak on the subject as a Department of Aerospace Engineering seminar guest.
Fujisawa, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Niigata University, Japan, will present “Pipeline Break Mechanism in Mihama Power Plant Caused by Flow Accelerated Corrosion with High Intensity Swirling Flow.” It will be held from 2:10-~3 p.m. September 4, 1235 Howe Hall.
The break at the Mihama facility in 2004 was caused by wall thinning of a pipeline due to flow accelerated corrosion (FAC) combined with flow turbulence involving an elbow and orifice structure. Hot water and steam that leaked from the pipe break resulted in five deaths and six injuries.
Fujisawa’s recent research has included FAC and Liquid Droplet Impingement (LDI) erosion, which is closely related to the pipe-thinning at the Mihama plant. Professor Fujisawa was the Director of the Flow Visualization Society of Japan, Managing Editor of Journal of Visualization, and president of the Visualization Research Center of Niigata University for more than a decade. He now works as a vice president of the Flow Energy Society of Japan and as an Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Flow Control, Measurement and Visualization.
All Iowa State University faculty, students, graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and scientists are invited to attend.
The seminar’s full abstract and Fujisawa’s full biography can be found here.