TY - CONF A1 - Wille, Frank A1 - Quercetti, Thomas A1 - Scheidemann, Robert T1 - Test Facilities for Radioactive Materials Transport and Storage Packagings at BAM T2 - PATRAM 2022, Proceedings of the 20th International Symposium on the Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Materials N2 - BAM acts as authority and for service in safety assessment of packages for transport and storage of radioactive materials. We offer extensive test capabilities and application of analytical methods for design verification and simulation for all types of packages for the transport and storage of radioactive materials according with the international IAEA Regulations for the safe transport and for national storage acceptance criteria. BAM operates several test facilities for drop and stacking testing, leak testing and thermal testing. The large drop test tower allows dropping full-scale specimens up to 200,000 kg in any drop orientation as requested. The comprehensive test facilities combined with long-term experience, newest equipment and measurement devices according to the latest state-of-the-art technology ensures realisation of complex test campaigns for package safety evaluation. Beyond that, non-destructive and destructive material test devices and experts are available. Equipment and application of all kinds of typical measurement categories can be offered for testing campaigns. In recent years we performed testing of full-scale type B package models with complex handling and preparation procedures. The results were contributed for different package design approval procedures. Type A packages mainly designed for medical related transport purposes, were continuously tested according to the transport regulations over recent years as well. Moreover, we work on research topics with relevance to package safety. The mechanical behaviour of lid closure systems under transport and storage conditions and the thermal behaviour of impact limiters were recently of special importance for the assessment competencies of BAM and were investigated under use of our test facilities. The paper describes the test facilities and capabilities for package design safety evaluation at BAM and shows examples from our recent work. T2 - PATRAM 2022, 20th International Symposium on the Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Materials CY - Juan-les-Pins, France DA - 11.06.2023 KW - IAEA KW - Fire test KW - Drop testing KW - Transport KW - Package PY - 2023 SP - 1 EP - 12 AN - OPUS4-57967 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Wille, Frank A1 - Debruyne, M. A1 - Eckert, B. A1 - Gauthier, F. A1 - Ben Ouaghrem, K. A1 - Le Bars, I. A1 - Jouve, A.-C. A1 - Cordier, N. T1 - Assessment of safety demonstrations relative to packages containing UF6 T2 - Proceedings of the 19th International Symposium on the Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Materials PATRAM 2019 N2 - The safety demonstrations realized by applicants in the case of approval request for the package designs containing enriched UF6 have to take into account some specific technical issues. Concerning the shipment of enriched UF6, the package designs consist in general of a filled 30B cylinder surrounded by an overpack. The description of the content, considering the UF6 origin, i.e. natural or reprocessed, shall be clearly justified especially when the UF6 isotopic composition exceeds the limits specified in ASTM standards. Concerning the containment of the UF6, the applicant shall demonstrate in all conditions of transport the leak-tightness of the valve and plug of the cylinders filled with enriched UF6. In this regard, when mechanical justifications are based on numerical calculations, the absence of contact between these components of the cylinder and the internal surfaces of the overpack after the regulatory drop tests shall be shown to respect the IAEA regulations. Furthermore, the representativeness of the ballast used to simulate the behaviour of the UF6 loaded within the cylinder shall be justified if drop tests are performed. The representativeness of the ballast should also be justified for numerical calculations. In addition, the applicant shall demonstrate that the melting temperature of the valve and the plug, including the tinned joint, will not be exceeded during the regulatory fire test. Finally, specific provisions relative to the use of plugs and the maintenance of cylinders should be included in the safety analysis report. T2 - 19th International Symposium on the Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Materials PATRAM 2019 CY - New Orleans, LA, USA DA - 04.08.2019 KW - Valve KW - Fire test KW - Content simulation KW - UF6 KW - Intumescent material PY - 2019 SP - Paper 1208, 1 EP - 8 AN - OPUS4-49094 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Feldkamp, Martin A1 - Quercetti, Thomas A1 - Wille, Frank T1 - Fire reference test for IAEA package thermal testing in a propane gas fire test facility T2 - Proceedings of the 19th International Symposium on the Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Materials PATRAM 2019 N2 - Packages for the transport of radioactive material shall withstand severe accidents. Therefore, the IAEA Regulations define different test scenarios to cover severe hypothetical accident conditions. One of these tests defined in detail is the thermal test, mainly consisting of a 30 minute fully engulfing 800 °C pool fire or an equally severe fire test. The heat fluxes into the package are of significant importance and depend substantially on the fire characteristics and the surface temperature of the package. In order to investigate the heat fluxes over a wide range of surface temperatures during a propane gas fire test and to get information about local fire impact a fire reference package, representing the outer geometry of a specific type of transport cask for radioactive waste, was designed. A closed steel sheet cylinder with a wall thickness of 10 mm was chosen as fire reference package. The cylinder was filled with refractory insulation material and instrumented with thermocouples distributed all over the cylinder. The local steel sheet temperatures measured allow the determination of local as well as global heat fluxes as a function of time and surface temperature. With this fire reference package three open-air propane gas fire tests were performed at BAM’s open air fire test stand. The flame exposure time period was changed for the different fire tests. Furthermore, the wind conditions changed between and during the tests. Test stand parameters like wind shield location and propane gas volume flow were chosen constant for the three tests. The test results were used to determine the changes of heat flux into the fire reference package in relation to the package surface temperature. This data also allows the calculation of local characteristics of the propane gas fire as there are the flame temperature, the fire convection coefficient and the radiation exchange coefficient in a first approach. The recently conducted tests provide an initial picture of local fire characteristics of the propane gas fire test facility. The test shows that the propane gas fire covers the IAEA-fire over a wide range of surface temperatures with the chosen test stand parameters. T2 - 19th International Symposium on the Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Materials PATRAM 2019 CY - New Orleans, LA, USA DA - 04.08.2019 KW - Fire test KW - Propane gas KW - Calorimetric test KW - IAEA fire testing PY - 2019 SP - Paper 1141, 1 EP - 10 AN - OPUS4-48840 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Erenberg, Marina A1 - Bletzer, Claus A1 - Feldkamp, Martin A1 - Musolff, André A1 - Nehrig, Marko A1 - Wille, Frank T1 - Experimental investigations of the burning behaviour of transport package impact limiters and of fire spread impact onto the cask T2 - Proceedings of the ASME 2018 Pressure Vessels an Piping Conference N2 - Accident safe packages for the transport of spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste shall fulfil international IAEA safety requirements. Compliance is shown by consecutive mechanical and thermal testing. Additional numerical analysis are usually part of the safety evaluation. For damage protection some package designs are equipped with wood filled impact limiters encapsulated by steel sheets. The safety of these packages is established in compliance with IAEA regulations. Cumulative mechanical and fire tests are conducted to achieve safety standards and to prevent loss of containment. Mechanical reliability is proven by drop tests. Drop testing might cause significant damage of the impact limiter steel sheets and might enable sufficient oxygen supply to the impact limiter during the fire test to ignite the wood filling. The boundary conditions of the fire test are precisely described in the IAEA regulatory. During the test the impact limiter will be subjected to a 30 minute enduring fire phase. Subsequent to the fire phase any burning of the specimen has to extinguish naturally and no artificial cooling is allowed. At BAM a large-scale fire test with a real size impact limiter and a wood volume of about 3m3 was conducted to investigate the burning behaviour of wood filled impact limiters in steel sheet encapsulation. The impact limiter was equipped with extensive temperature monitoring equipment. Until today burning of such impact limiters is not sufficiently considered in transport package design and more investigation is necessary to explore the consequences of the impacting fire. The objective of the large scale test was to find out whether a self-sustaining smouldering or even a flaming fire inside the impact limiter was initiated and what impact on the cask is resulting. The amount of energy, transferred from the impact limiter into the cask is of particular importance for the safety of heavy weight packages. With the intention of heat flux quantification a new approach was made and a test bench was designed. T2 - ASME 2018 Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference CY - Prague, Czech Republic DA - 15.07.2018 KW - Shock absorber KW - Impact limiter KW - Wood KW - Thermal testing KW - Fire KW - Smoldering KW - IAEA KW - Fire test PY - 2018 SN - 978-0-7918-5170-8 VL - PVP2018 SP - 84714-1 EP - 84714-10 AN - OPUS4-46984 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Feldkamp, Martin A1 - Erenberg, Marina A1 - Nehrig, Marko A1 - Bletzer, Claus A1 - Musolff, André A1 - Schönfelder, Thorsten A1 - Wille, Frank T1 - Behavior of wood filled impact limiters during the IAEA thermal test T2 - Proceedings-CD, ASME 2017 Pressure Vessels & Piping Conference (PVP 2017) N2 - Packages for the transport of radioactive material are often equipped with impact limiters consisting of wood, encapsulated by steel sheets. These impact limiters shall ensure that transport casks meet the IAEA safety requirements. After damage caused by the mechanical tests the package has to withstand a severe fire scenario. It is required that the mechanical tests have to produce maximum damage, taking into account the thermal test. Furthermore, any damage, which would give rise to increased radiation or loss of containment or affect the confinement system after the thermal test, should be considered. Concerning the thermal test, the IAEA safety requirements state that during and following the fire test, the specimen shall not be artificially cooled and any combustion of materials of the package shall be permitted to proceed naturally. Different works from the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) and BAM show that additional energy supply from a pre-damaged impact limiter to the cask could occur caused by smoldering of the wood. This effect should be considered within the safety assessment of the package. A heat wave from the fire could overlap with the additional energy from the impact limiter in the sealing system. In 2015 BAM conducted small scale fire tests with wood filled metal drums showing continuing combustion processes during the cooling down phase. As not much is known about smoldering processes in wood filled impact limiters, it is highly complex to define pre-damage of impact limiters, which are conservative, regarding the most damaging energy flow from the impact limiter to the containment system in dependence of time. More research has to be done to develop models to examine the effects of smoldering impact limiters on the containment of packages for the assessment. The process of smoldering is described with regard to the requirements in the thermal safety assessment. Parameters influencing the smoldering process are identified. BAM operates test facilities to examine the issue of mechanical damage, combustion and heat transfer of packages for transport of radioactive material. A thermal test will take place with a wood filled test specimen with a diameter of about 2.3 meters. The aim is to understand the phenomena of smoldering under the consideration of relevant regulatory boundary conditions. T2 - ASME 2017 Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference (PVP2017) CY - Waikoloa, Hawaii, USA DA - 16.07.2017 KW - Fire test KW - Wood KW - IAEA KW - Smoldering KW - Smouldering KW - Shock absorber KW - Thermal test KW - Combustion KW - Impact limiter PY - 2017 SN - 978-0-7918-5802-8 VL - 7 SP - Article UNSP V007T07A038, 1 EP - 9 AN - OPUS4-43172 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Feldkamp, Martin A1 - Erenberg, Marina A1 - Nehrig, Marko A1 - Bletzer, Claus A1 - Musolff, André A1 - Wille, Frank A1 - Schönfelder, Thorsten T1 - Aspects of assessment of packages with wood filled impact limiters during fire tests T2 - WM 2017 Conference Proceedings N2 - Packages for the transport of radioactive material are often equipped with impact limiters consisting of wood, encapsulated by steel sheets. These impact limiters shall ensure that the transport casks meet the mechanical and thermal IAEA regulatory test requirements. According to the accident conditions of transport it is mandatory to expose the specimens to a cumulative effect by mechanical and thermal impacts. The mechanical tests consist of a free drop from 9 m onto a flat unyielding target and a 1 m drop onto a puncture bar. After damage caused by mechanical test sequences the package has to withstand a severe fire scenario. Corresponding to the IAEA advisory material it is required that the impact attitudes for the 9 m drop test and for the puncture test have to be such as to produce maximum damage, taking into account the thermal test. Moreover, any damage, which would give rise to increased radiation or loss of containment or affect the confinement system after the thermal test, should be considered. During and following the thermal test, the specimen shall not be artificially cooled and any combustion of materials of the package shall be permitted to proceed naturally. Different works from the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) and BAM show that additional energy supply from a pre-damaged impact limiter to the cask could occur. This effect should be considered within the safety assessment of the containment. Thermal effects at the closure system of the cask, which might result in an elevated activity release, have to be excluded. BAM conducted small scale tests with wood filled metal buckets showing continuing combustion processes during the cooling down phase. These test results are presented. As not much is known about smouldering processes in wood filled impact limiters, it is highly complex to define pre-damage of impact limiters, which are conservative, regarding the maximum damaging energy flow from the impact limiter to the containment system. More research has to be done to develop models to examine the effects of smouldering impact limiters on the containment of packages for the transport of radioactive material. Aspects of assessment and its difficulties are shown. BAM as a competent authority for the approval of transport casks for radioactive material in Germany operates the test facilities to examine the issue of mechanical damage, combustion and heat transfer for such kind of package systems. For this purpose the knowledge from real drop tests with casks of a mass partly over 100 tons was transferred to a test application. A thermal test will take place with a wood filled test specimen with a diameter of about 2.3 meters. The aim is to understand the phenomena of smouldering under the consideration of relevant regulatory boundary conditions. The process of smouldering is described with regard to the requirements in the thermal assessment of safety of packages for the transport of radioactive material. Requirements concerning the pre-damage of packages for the maximum damage of impact limiters are discussed. Parameters influencing the smouldering process are identified. T2 - WM 2017 Conference CY - Phoenix, AZ, USA DA - 05.03.2017 KW - Fire test KW - Wood KW - Combustion KW - Smouldering KW - Smoldering KW - Impact limiter KW - Shock absorber KW - Thermal test KW - IAEA PY - 2017 SN - 978-0-9828171-6-2 SP - 1 AN - OPUS4-40157 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Feldkamp, Martin A1 - Nehrig, Marko A1 - Bletzer, Claus A1 - Musolff, André A1 - Erenberg, Marina A1 - Wille, Frank T1 - Behaviour of Wood Filled Impact Limiters during Fire Test T2 - Proceedings of the 18th International Symposium on the Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Materials (PATRAM 2016) N2 - Packages for the transport of radioactive material are often equipped with impact limiters consisting of wood, encapsulated by steel sheets. These impact limiters shall ensure the transport cask meets the mechanical and thermal IAEA regulatory test requirements. After damage caused by the mechanical tests the package has to withstand a severe fire scenario. According to the regulations during and following the thermal test, the specimen shall not be artificially cooled and any combustion of materials of the package shall be permitted to proceed naturally. Corresponding to results of the French institute IRSN combustion and smouldering of wood inside the impact limiter occurred during and after the fire test. An additional energy supply from a pre-damaged impact limiter to the cask could be the consequence for the safety assessment of the containment. BAM started a first test phase to examine the issue of combustion for such kind of package components. The goal was to understand the phenomena under the consideration of relevant regulatory boundary conditions. Several metal buckets were filled with wood and equipped with thermocouples. The test specimens have been prepared with different damage arrangements to take the influence of the mechanical tests into account. This paper shows the experimental setup and the conduction of the tests. The first test shows that pre-damaged metal encapsulations can lead to smouldering of the wood and with this to a supplement energy release after the end of the 30 minute fire. BAM is in the preparation process for a second test phase. A thermal test will take place with a wood filled test specimen weighing about 2Mg. T2 - The 18th International Symposium on the Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Materials (PATRAM 2016) CY - Kobe, Japan DA - 18.09.2016 KW - Large scale testing KW - Fire test KW - Impact limiter KW - Shock absorber KW - Thermal test KW - Typ-B KW - Wood KW - Smouldering PY - 2016 SP - paper no. 1011 AN - OPUS4-37854 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Feldkamp, Martin A1 - Nehrig, Marko A1 - Bletzer, Claus Wilhelm A1 - Musolff, André A1 - Wille, Frank T1 - Combustion of wood encapsulated in steel sheets during fire test T2 - RAMTRANS 2015 - 10th International conference on radioactive materials transport and storage (Proceedings) N2 - Packages for the transport of radioactive material are often equipped with impact limiters consisting of wood, encapsulated by Steel sheets. These impact limiters shall ensure the transport cask meets the IAEA safety requirements. After damage caused by the mechanical tests the package has to withstand a severe fire scenario. According to the regulations during and following the fire test, the specimen shall not be artificially cooled and any combustion of materials of the package shall be permitted to proceed naturally. Due to results of the French institute IRSN it was shown that after the fire test an additional energy supply from a pre-damaged impact limiter should be taken into account. The combustion or smouldering of wood was of interest. BAM started a first test phase to examine the issue of combustion for such kind of package components. The goal was to understand the phenomena under the consideration of relevant regulatory boundary conditions. Several metal buckets were filled with wood and equipped with thermocouples. The test specimens have been prepared with different damage arrangements to take the influence of the mechanical tests into account. This paper shows the experimental Setup and the conduction of the tests. The first test shows that pre-damaged metal encapsulations can lead to smouldering of the wood and with this to a Supplement energy release after the end of the 30 minute fire. The consequence could be, to consider additional thermal loads of wood filled impact limiters to filled the IAEA regulations, if the conditions of the tests are transferable to the safety analysis of the package design. T2 - RAMTRANS 2015 - 10th International conference on radioactive materials transport and storage CY - Oxford, UK DA - 19.05.2015 KW - Typ-B KW - Impact limiter KW - Shock absorber KW - Wood KW - Thermal test KW - Fire test PY - 2015 SP - 1 EP - 9 AN - OPUS4-33407 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Feldkamp, Martin A1 - Nehrig, Marko A1 - Bletzer, Claus Wilhelm A1 - Wille, Frank T1 - Pressure build-up during the fire test in type B(U) packages containing water - 13280 T2 - WM2013 Conference (Proceedings) T2 - WM2013 Conference CY - Phoenix, Arizona, USA DA - 2013-02-24 KW - Fire test KW - B(U) KW - Thermal test KW - Pressure KW - Water PY - 2013 SN - 978-0-9836186-2-1 SP - 1 EP - 12(?) CY - Phoenix, Arizona, USA AN - OPUS4-27997 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -