TY - CONF A1 - Musolff, André T1 - Experimental Investigation of RAM Packages Impact Limiters T2 - Waste Management Conference 2014 (WM2014) CY - Phoenix, AZ, USA DA - 2014-03-02 PY - 2014 AN - OPUS4-30277 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Musolff, André A1 - Quercetti, Thomas A1 - Müller, Karsten A1 - Droste, Bernhard A1 - Gründer, Klaus-Peter T1 - Experimental testing of impact limiters for RAM packages under drop test conditions N2 - In context with new cask designs and their approval procedure, the experimental testing of impact limiters under drop test conditions becomes more and more important in order to assess the damage mechanics behaviour and safety margins for validation reasons. In recent years, various designs of impact limiters have been tested by the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing within specific component testing and particularly with regard to type B package design approval procedures. The paper focuses on the experimental realisation of impact limiter tests and presents implemented measurement techniques to determine the amount of deformation and to explain the impact behaviour by means of photogrammetric metrology and three-dimensional fringe projection method, high speed motion analysis and adjusted deceleration measurements. T2 - PATRAM 2013 - 17th International symposium on the packaging and transportation of radioactive materials CY - San Francisco, CA, USA DA - 18.08.2013 KW - Drop test KW - Impact limiters KW - RAM packages KW - Measurement methods PY - 2013 SP - 1 EP - 9 PB - Omnipress AN - OPUS4-31040 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Musolff, André A1 - Quercetti, Thomas A1 - Droste, Bernhard A1 - Müller, Karsten A1 - Gründer, Klaus-Peter T1 - Experimental investigation of RAM packages impact limiters - 14256 N2 - In context with new cask designs and their approval procedure the experimental testing of impact limiters under drop test conditions becomes more and more important in order to assess the damage mechanics behavior and safety margins for validation reasons. In recent years various designs of impact limiters have been tested by the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) within specific component testing and particularly with regard to type B package design approval procedures. The paper focuses on the experimental realization of impact limiter tests and presents implemented measurement techniques to determine the amount of deformation and to explain the impact behavior by means of photogrammetric metrology and 3-d fringe projection method, high-speed motion analysis and adjusted deceleration measurements. T2 - WM2014 Conference CY - Phoenix, Arizona, USA DA - 02.03.2014 KW - Drop test KW - Impact limiters KW - RAM packages KW - Measurement methods PY - 2014 SN - 978-0-9836186-3-8 SP - Paper 14256, 1 EP - 10 AN - OPUS4-31050 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 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 - Musolff, Andre T1 - Fire Influence to Wood Filled Impact Limiters - Implications for the Package Design Safety Case N2 - Impact limiters with wooden components are widely used in the design of packages for transportation of radioactive material. In most designs, the wood is encapsulated with steel sheets. Impact limiters mainly determine the mechanical and thermal behaviour of the package in accident conditions of transport in accordance with the IAEA Regulations. In context with research and development for package design approval competence, the thermal behaviour of heavy-weight packages was investigated at BAM with an artificially pre-damaged generic impact limiter design. Within this first investigation, the pre-damaged impact limiter with a diameter of 2.3 meters was mounted on a water tank simulating the thermal capacity of a cask during the fire test. The water tank is part of a water circulating system built of several components such as pump, heater, cooler, sliding valve, flow meter, thermocouples and control unit in order to measure the heat flux. Furthermore, the investigations focus on the effects this additional heat generation would have on the cask and especially on the lid-closure system with the gasket. The results of these experiments could find consideration in the safety case of the transport packages of radioactive material using wood filled impact limiters. T2 - 20th International Symposium on the Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Materials CY - Juan-les-Pins, France DA - 11.06.2023 KW - Fire test KW - Impact limiter KW - Mechanical and thermal behaviour PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-57719 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Feldkamp, Martin A1 - Quercetti, Thomas A1 - Gleim, Tobias A1 - Nehrig, Marko A1 - Musolff, André A1 - Wille, Frank T1 - R&D Activities by BAM Related to Transport Package Fire Testing N2 - Packages for the transport of radioactive material shall meet the mechanical and thermal test requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regulations for package design approval. Besides mechanical testing, the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) performs thermal tests in accordance with the IAEA regulations. The thermal test includes a 30-minute 800°C fully engulfing fire. BAM continuously performs various thermal experiments for the investigation of the thermal response of packages with respect to the IAEA fire. The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the already performed, ongoing and future physical tests and experiments of BAM in the field of thermal investigations. These research and development works shall support our competencies for the authority package design assessment. BAM operates a propane gas fire test facility. To be able to carry out comparative investigations and validity between the propane fire and the in detail prescribed pool fire test in the regulations, BAM carries out various calorimetric tests and investigates the boundary conditions of the fire with the help of fire reference packages. At the same time, we are conducting various fire scenarios with wood-filled impact limiters. Large-scale fire tests of impact limiters are carried out on a full scale as well as on a small scale. Influencing variables are investigated in particular by means of geometric changes and the consideration of artificial damages, in particular holes. In addition to propane fire as a heat source, thermal scenarios are also investigated with hydrogen as heat source and an infrared radiator system to ignite test specimens. For these numerous test arrangements, the transferability to existing and newly developed transport package designs is essential and fruitful within the review of design approvals, especially for Dual Purpose casks with a long-lasting operation time. T2 - 20th International Symposium on the Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Materials (PATRAM 22) CY - Juan-Les-Pins, France DA - 11.06.2023 KW - Fire KW - Testing KW - Hydrogen KW - Wood KW - Propane KW - Heat Flux KW - Fire Reference Package KW - Radioactive Material PY - 2023 SP - 1 EP - 10 AN - OPUS4-57721 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Quercetti, Thomas A1 - Feldkamp, Martin A1 - Gleim, Tobias A1 - Musolff, Andre A1 - Werner, Jan A1 - Wille, Frank T1 - Enhancement of the BAM Fire Test Stand for Testing a Large Transport Package for Radioactive Materials N2 - Packages for the transport of spent nuclear fuel are designed to endure severe accidents. To obtain approval, these transport packages must adhere to the specification-based criteria of the international transport regulations SSR-6 of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). To ensure compliance with these requirements, specific mechanical and thermal tests need to be addressed with respect to the package type. Typically, SSR-6 prescribes a mechanical test followed by a thermal fire test as part of different testing scenarios. To approve the latter test of the sequence, BAM performs calorimeter tests in advance with so-called fire reference packages for characterizing the actual fire and its impact on the package to be tested. Packages are designed with different geometry sizes depending on their purpose. For previous tests, the implemented test setups in the fire test stand were sufficiently dimensioned and could cover all requirements in this respect. However, to cover additional testing needs in the future, BAM is expanding the test setup for the purpose of testing significantly larger packages. In previous test setups one ring burner for propane surrounding the test specimen was sufficient. The limiting size in this configuration was the design height of the transport package to be tested. According to the thermal test of the IAEA-Regulations [1], a 30-minute fully engulfing 800°C pool fire or an equally severe fire, e.g., propane gas fire, must be applied to the transport package. Possible adjustments such as nozzle cross-section and propane mass flow can be adjusted to a certain extent. Further modifications, to cover significantly higher and larger packages all-around with a fully engulfing fire, must be accomplished with an additional, second burner ring. Both burner rings had the same dimensions and were mounted on top of each other at different heights to create a significantly larger volume of fire that completely engulfs the package including its impact limiter. To meet the IAEA regulatory boundary conditions, the enhanced fire test stand with the second burner ring is tested with a large fire reference package and will then be used for real-size transport packages after all parameters are successfully met. This fire reference package represents the external geometry of a generic transport cask for radioactive material and is equipped with numerous temperature sensors to record temperature curves at the interior wall surfaces. T2 - RAMTrans 2024 CY - London, United Kingdom DA - 14.05.2024 KW - Fire testing KW - Full-scale KW - Transport package PY - 2024 SP - 1 EP - 7 AN - OPUS4-60253 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 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 - Musolff, Andre A1 - Quercetti, Thomas A1 - Müller, Karsten A1 - Bartholmai, Matthias T1 - Kinematic aspects of RAM packages drop tests N2 - BAM is the German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing and the competent authority for mechanical and thermal safety assessment of transport packages for spent fuel and high level waste. In context with safety assessment of RAM packages BAM performed numerous drop tests in the last decades. The tests were mostly accompanied by extensive and various measurement techniques especially by instrumented measurements with strain gages and accelerometers. The procedure of drop testing and the resulting measurement analysis are the main methods to evaluate the safety against mechanical test conditions. Measurement techniques are dedicated to answer questions in regard to the structural integrity of a RAM package, the mechanical behavior of the prototype as well as of its content under impact conditions. Test results like deceleration-time functions constitute a main basis for the validation of assumptions in the safety analysis and for the evaluation of numerical calculations. In this context the adequate selection of accelerometers and measurement systems for the performance of drop tests is important. Therefore it is not only necessary to find suitable positions for the accelerometers at the test specimens, but also to consider technical boundary conditions as e.g. temperature. T2 - 2018 WM Symposia CY - Phoenix, AZ, USA DA - 18.03.2018 KW - Drop KW - Test KW - Measurement KW - Analysis KW - Prototyp PY - 2018 SP - Paper 18149, 1 EP - 12 AN - OPUS4-44872 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Musolff, Andre T1 - Kinematic aspects of RAM packages drop tests N2 - BAM is the German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing and the competent authority for mechanical and thermal safety assessment of transport packages for spent fuel and high level waste. In context with safety assessment of RAM packages BAM performed numerous drop tests in the last decades. The tests were mostly accompanied by extensive and various measurement techniques especially by instrumented measurements with strain gages and accelerometers. The procedure of drop testing and the resulting measurement analysis are the main methods to evaluate the safety against mechanical test conditions. Measurement techniques are dedicated to answer questions in regard to the structural integrity of a RAM package, the mechanical behavior of the prototype as well as of its content under impact conditions. Test results like deceleration-time functions constitute a main basis for the validation of assumptions in the safety analysis and for the evaluation of numerical calculations. In this context the adequate selection of accelerometers and measurement systems for the performance of drop tests is important. Therefore it is not only necessary to find suitable positions for the accelerometers at the test specimens, but also to consider technical boundary conditions as e.g. temperature. T2 - 2018 WM Symposia CY - Phoenix, AZ, USA DA - 18.03.2018 KW - Drop KW - Test KW - Measurement KW - Kinematic KW - Analysis PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-44874 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Linnemann, Konrad A1 - Nehrig, Marko A1 - Musolff, André A1 - Wille, Frank T1 - Experience by BAM in the transport package safety assessment of German waste containers N2 - Transport and storage containers for low and midlevel radioactive waste are getting more and more of relevance due to the nuclear phase out decision in 2011. For higher activities Type B(U) approved waste containers will be needed for the shut down and dismantling phases of NPPs. It is expected that large quantities are required in the near future. German waste containers are generally approved for transport and interim storage and are also intended for the final disposal in the Konrad repository. BAM is involved in the authority licensing of transport package designs in Germany. In this context, BAM is responsible for the assessment of safe containment, mechanical, thermal and quality management issues. BAM also operates test facilities and performs drop as well as thermal tests during package licensing procedures. This paper summarizes our experience in the transport package design assessment of Type B(U) waste containers. A general overview of the approval process, the requirements and approaches BAM applies are described. Some examples are used to illustrate different aspects and technical issues we are addressing during the package assessment. In the first part of the paper the specific design aspects of German waste containers are described. Here, a general overview is given e.g. about closure systems, impact limiter designs, and the handling concepts. Furthermore, the wide range of radioactive content and their physical behavior including the impact on the packages assessment are described. The second part is focused on questions about the licensing and assessment process of German waste containers from the BAM authority point of view. The general approaches for the strategy of demonstration are outlined on the basis of the test conditions according to IAEA Regulations SSR-6. Furthermore, particular issues of the mechanical and thermal assessment with respect to the specific test conditions are discussed. For accident conditions of transport, aspects to be mentioned are e.g. the assessment of the lid bolts, the axial gap applied between content and lid, and the thermal behavior of the wood filled impact limiter after the fire test. However, issues of the assessment for routine and normal conditions of transport are addressed in this paper, too. The intention of this paper is introduce recent approval procedure experience in Germany, describing technical evaluation issues and so reduce rounds of questions during applications. T2 - 2018 WM Symposia CY - Phoenix, AZ, USA DA - 18.03.2018 KW - Transport packages KW - Safety assessment KW - Lowlevel and midlevel radioactive waste PY - 2018 SP - Paper 18469, 1 EP - 10 AN - OPUS4-44861 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Nehrig, Marko A1 - Erenberg, Marina A1 - Feldkamp, Martin A1 - Bletzer, Claus A1 - Musolff, André A1 - Wille, Frank T1 - Large Scale IAEA Thermal Test with Wood filled Impact Limiters N2 - Packages for the transport of radioactive material are often equipped with impact limiters consisting of wood. Mostly this wood is encapsulated by steel sheets. The impact limiters are needed to ensure that the transport casks meet the IAEA safety requirements. According to the IAEA safety requirements a package has to withstand consecutively severe mechanical tests followed by a thermal test. The mechanical tests have to produce maximum damage concerning the thermal test. Following this, the impact limiters may have serious pre-damage when the thermal tests begins. 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. Small scale fire tests with wood filled metal drums by BAM and works of the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) showed that pre-damaged steel encapsulated wooden structures could start smoldering initiated by the thermal test. These processes supply additional energy to the cask which should be considered within the safety assessment of the package. As not much is known about smoldering processes in encapsulated wooden structures with a reduced oxygen supply the need for a test was identified. To investigate the influence of a smoldering impact limiter concerning the amount of energy supplied to the cask in dependence of the time BAM conducted a large scale impact limiter thermal test. For that, a pre-damaged impact limiter with a diameter of 2,3 m was mounted on a water tank simulating a cask. A complex system of a regulated pump, a heater, a cooler, a slide valve, a flow meter and numerous thermocouples were installed and connected to a control unit to ensure all needed operating conditions. After a pre-heating compared to typical SNF decay-heat, the 30 min lasting fire phase of the thermal test was started. After that, the expected and initiated smoldering began. The results of the large scale test are presented in this poster. Systematic small scale tests will follow to identify the influence of different parameters, e.g. moisture content and scale effects. The tests took place at BAM Test Site for Technical Safety (TTS) with its various possibilities for mechanical and thermal tests. The results of these tests will have direct influence in the safety assessment of transport cask for the transport of radioactive material T2 - 2018 WM Symposia CY - Phoenix, AZ, USA DA - 18.03.2018 KW - Type-B Package KW - Thermal Test PY - 2018 SP - Paper 18257, 1 EP - 11 AN - OPUS4-45311 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -