TY  - CONF
A1  - Quercetti, Thomas
A1  - Feldkamp, Martin
A1  - Gleim, Tobias
A1  - Musolff, André
A1  - Werner, Jan
A1  - Wille, Frank
T1  - Fire Test Stand for Thermal Testing of Large Packages for the Transport of Radioactive Materials
T2  - 21st International Symposium on the Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Materials (PATRAM 2025)
N2  - Packages for the transport of high level radioactive materials are designed to withstand severe accidents. These packages must comply with the specific safety requirements SSR 6 [ of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). To guarantee compliance with these requirements, specific mechanical and thermal tests need to be addressed r egard ing the package type. Typically,
the r egulations prescribe mechanical tests followed by a thermal test as part of a cumulative test scenario. The thermal test is specified by the exposure of a test specimen for a period of 30 minutes to a thermal environment that provides a heat flux equivalent to that of a hydrocarbon fuel air fire with an av erage fire temperature of at least 800 °C fully flame engulfing the test specimen. The Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) operates various test facilities for this purpose at their Test Site for Technical Safety (near Berlin in Germany).
Thermal tests for large packages are conducted in an established fire test stand that may be adapted by the test setup to the geometric boundary conditions of a test specimen. This fire test stand is built for test specimens with masses up to 200,000 kg an d geometric dimensions relating to large transport packages including their impact limiters. The test specimen is usually placed on a water cooled support frame in the middle of the test stand. The fire is realized by burning propane gas which is released in liquid state from an array of gas nozzles arranged in the form of a burner ring surrounding the test specimen. For particularly extra large test specimens, two burner rings are used on top of each other and at different heights to firstly achieve full f ire engulfment with a significantly larger volume of fire and secondly to achieve the required heat output , cf. In advance of a regular thermal test BAM usually performs so called fire reference tests to determine the test conditions for compliance with the IAEA requirements. These tests are performed using a generic package which corresponds to the external geometr ic dimensions of the test specimen used later in the approval test. Then, this reference package is exposed to a fire under defined test parameters whereas the corresponding heat input determined from the temperature changes measured is regarded as main cr iterion for proofing compliance with the IAEA criteria. The paper shows the experimental proof of the suitability of BAM’s fire test stand for thermal testing of extra large packages. The heat input and fire temperatures fully meet the IAEA criteria and can also be set significantly higher for example for extra regulatory testing.
T2  - PATRAM 2025
CY  - San Antonio, TX, USA
DA  - 27.07.2025
KW  - IAEA Regu-lations
KW  - Fire Test Stand
KW  - Accident Scenario
KW  - Fire Qualification
PY  - 2025
SP  - 1
EP  - 10
CY  - Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM)
AN  - OPUS4-63872
LA  - eng
AD  - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany
ER  -