TY - CONF A1 - Feldkamp, Martin T1 - Outcomes of three large scale fire reference tests conducted in BAM fire test facility N2 - Packages for the transport of high-level radioactive material are designed to withstand severe accidents. Hypothetical severe accident conditions are defined in the IAEA Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Materials. One of these accident conditions 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 depend substantially on the fire characteristics and the Surface temperature of the package. Fire tests can be performed at BAM on a propane gas fire test facility. In order to investigate the heat fluxes over a wide range of surface temperatures in this test facility a fire reference package was designed for multiple use. The package represented the outer geometry of a specific transport cask for radioactive waste. The fire reference package is a closed steel sheet cylinder with a wall thickness of 10 mm, a length of 1500 mm and a diameter of 1050 mm. The package was instrumented with thermocouples and filled with heat resistant insulation material. Three open-air fire tests were performed in the BAM propane gas fire test facility. The flames exposure time period varied slightly for the fire tests. The wind direction as well as the wind Speed were measured and changed between and during the tests. Test stand parameters such as wind shield location and propane gas volume flow were chosen constant for the three tests. The locally measured fire reference package steel sheet temperatures were used for the calculation of heat fluxes as function of time and surface temperature. The measured temperatures allowed further calculations. In a first approach effective fire characteristics of the propane gas fire, including the flame temperature, the fire convection coefficient and a Radiation exchange coefficient mathematically describing the determined average heat flux over the surface temperature were calculated. T2 - Pressure Vessels & Piping Virtual Conference 2020 CY - Online meeting DA - 03.08.2020 KW - Fire KW - Testing KW - Convection coefficient KW - Large scale fire testing KW - Propane gas fire test facility PY - 2020 AN - OPUS4-51194 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Feldkamp, Martin T1 - Outcomes of Three Large-Scale Fire Reference Tests Conducted in Propane Gas Fire Test Facility N2 - Packages for the transport of high-level radioactive material are designed to withstand severe accidents. Hypothetical severe accident conditions are defined in the IAEA Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Materials. One of these accident conditions 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 depend substantially on the fire characteristics and the surface temperature of the package. Fire tests can be performed at BAM on a propane gas fire test facility. In order to investigate the heat fluxes over a wide range of surface temperatures in this test facility a fire reference package was designed for multiple use. The package represented the outer geometry of a specific transport cask for radioactive waste. The fire reference package is a closed steel sheet cylinder with a wall thickness of 10 mm, a length of 1500 mm and a diameter of 1050 mm. The package was instrumented with thermocouples and filled with heat resistant insulation material. Three open-air fire tests were performed in the BAM propane gas fire test facility. The flames exposure time period varied slightly for the fire tests. The wind direction as well as the wind speed were measured and changed between and during the tests. Test stand parameters such as wind shield location and propane gas volume flow were chosen constant for the three tests. The locally measured fire reference package steel sheet temperatures were used for the calculation of heat fluxes as function of time and surface temperature. The measured temperatures allowed further calculations. In a first approach effective fire characteristics of the propane gas fire, including the flame temperature, the fire convection coefficient and a radiation exchange coefficient mathematically describing the determined average heat flux over the surface temperature were calculated. T2 - Abteilungskolloquium 3.3 CY - Online meeting DA - 03.12.2020 KW - Fire KW - Heat flux KW - Convection coefficient KW - Adiabatic surface temperature KW - IAEA PY - 2020 AN - OPUS4-51778 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Feldkamp, Martin T1 - Fire reference package - Results of large-scale fire tests N2 - Packages for the transport of high-level radioactive material are designed to withstand severe accidents. Hypothetical severe accident conditions are defined in the IAEA Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Materials. One of these accident conditions 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 depend substantially on the fire characteristics and the surface temperature of the package. Fire tests can be performed at BAM on a propane gas fire test facility. In order to investigate the heat fluxes over a wide range of surface temperatures in this test facility a fire reference package was designed for multiple use. The package represented the outer geometry of a specific transport cask for radioactive waste. The fire reference package is a closed steel sheet cylinder with a wall thickness of 10 mm, a length of 1500 mm and a diameter of 1050 mm. The package was instrumented with thermocouples and filled with heat resistant insulation material. Three open-air fire tests were performed in the BAM propane gas fire test facility. The flames exposure time period varied slightly for the fire tests. The wind direction as well as the wind speed were measured and changed between and during the tests. Test stand parameters such as wind shield location and propane gas volume flow were chosen constant for the three tests. The locally measured fire reference package steel sheet temperatures were used for the calculation of heat fluxes as function of time and surface temperature. The measured temperatures allowed further calculations. In a first approach effective fire characteristics of the propane gas fire, including the flame temperature, the fire convection coefficient and a radiation exchange coefficient mathematically describing the determined average heat flux over the surface temperature were calculated. T2 - IRSN-BAM Symposium - Safety of Transport and Storage Packages CY - Online meeting DA - 19.11.2020 KW - Fire reference KW - Calorimetric test KW - Propane KW - Heat flux KW - Propane gas fire test facility PY - 2020 AN - OPUS4-51686 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Feldkamp, Martin T1 - Fire Testing - Current Activities N2 - The presentation gives an overview over three current fire testing activities for testing transport packages for the transport of high-level radioactive material. Packages for the transport of high-level radioactive material must withstand severe hypothetical accidents. Regulatory test conditions shall cover these severe accident conditions and consist of mechanical tests and a following thermal test. To withstand the mechanical tests heavy weight packages are often designed with impact limiters consisting of wood encapsulated in steel sheets. The thermal test is defined precisely in the IAEA-regulations as a 30 minute fully engulfing 800 °C fire. After the fire phase a pre-damaged impact limiter might continue burning or smoldering and influence the cask thermal behavior with its energy release. The energy transferred from the impact limiter to the cask is of importance for the safety of transport packages. A full-scale fire test with an impact limiter of 2.3 m in diameter and filled with spruce wood was designed and performed. The impact limiter continued burning for 3 days. Energy transfer and temperature measurements were performed. A new test is designed to examine pressure build up and possible mechanical failures in an undamaged impact limiter with a diameter of 1.9 m. The test is designed to measure heat flux from the impact limiter in case of its ignition and burning. To furthermore examine the burning behavior of steel encapsulated wood piles, tests are prepared with wood fire containers and an infrared ignition source. A fire reference package for calorimetric tests was designed. The fire reference package design consists of a closed steel sheet cylinder with a length of 1,500 mm, an exterior diameter of 1,050 mm, and a wall thickness of 10 mm. The cylinder was filled with refractory insulation material and instrumented with thermocouples distributed all over the cylinder. The measured local steel sheet temperatures allow the determination of local as well as overall integral heat fluxes versus time and versus surface temperature. Currently, tests are planned with a new and relatively small fire reference package design. The new design will have a steel sheet cylinder with a length of 182 mm, an exterior diameter of 120 mm. Additionally heat flux sensors will be used in the new fire reference package test design. The propane gas fire will be adjusted with respect to the outcome of the fire tests to meet the requirements of the IAEA-fire. T2 - Technical Exchange IRSN – BAM Transport & Storage of Packages for Radioactive Material CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 08.09.2021 KW - Heat flux sensor KW - Propane gas fire KW - Wood fire PY - 2021 AN - OPUS4-53242 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Feldkamp, Martin 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 Testing KW - Wood KW - Hydrogen KW - Fire Reference Test PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-57722 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Feldkamp, Martin T1 - Evaluation of Heat Fluxes in Fire Reference Test Conducted in BAM Propane Gas Fire Test Facility N2 - Packages for the transport of intermediate- and high-level radioactive waste are designed to withstand severe accidents. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has established specific mechanical and thermal tests. Packages for the transport of radioactive material must withstand these tests to comply with the Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Materials IAEA [IAEA (2018)]. A fire reference package was developed with the primary objective to demonstrate that the fire meets the regulatory requirements. Another aim is to characterise the boundary conditions of the actual fire as input parameters for thermo-mechanical simulations. A simple method to characterise the boundary conditions of a real steady state fire with a fire reference package is presented. The thermal test mainly consists of a 30 minute fully engulfing 800°C pool fire or an equally severe fire, such as a propane gas fire. The fire reference tests are performed prior to the actual fire test with the real package. The heat fluxes into the package depend substantially on the fire characteristics and the surface temperature of the package. To investigate local and overall heat fluxes over a wide range of surface temperatures in this test facility a fire reference package was designed for repeated use. The fire reference package presented in this paper represents the outer geometry of a small transport container for radioactive material and is used as a device in civil engineering. It is designed as a closed steel sheet cylinder with a wall thickness of 10 mm, a length of 182 mm and a diameter of 102 mm. The package was instrumented with thermocouples and filled with heat resistant insulation material. Open-air fire tests were performed in a BAM propane gas fire test facility with the fire reference package. The measured temperatures are used to determine the changes of heat fluxes into the fire reference package in relation to the package surface temperature. The calculated heat fluxes allow its fitting to express the thermal exposure as simple mathematical boundary condition. Therefore, in a first approach, fire properties such as adiabatic surface temperature (AST) as proposed by Wickström et al. (2007), convection coefficient and emissivity are determined mathematically fitting the heat flux development presented in this paper. The evaluated results provide an initial picture of local fire characteristics of the conducted propane gas fire and are a further development of previous works from Feldkamp et al. (2020). The results can be used in thermal and thermo-mechanical models to simulate the load on the real transport package in fire. The test shows that the examined propane gas fire covers the IAEA-fire over a wide range of surface temperatures with the chosen test stand parameters. T2 - SMiRT 27 (27th conference on Structural Mechanics in Reactor Technology) CY - Yokohama, Japan DA - 03.03.2024 KW - Fire KW - Propane KW - Fire Reference Test PY - 2024 AN - OPUS4-59680 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Feldkamp, Martin T1 - Fire Reference Tests for Qualification of IAEA Fire N2 - A small cylindrical fire reference package was designed. A fire test setup was created using the fire reference package in accordance with IAEA standards. Four propane gas fire tests were conducted to determine heat fluxes into the fire reference package. The initial test setup was modified to create the final design of the fire test facility. This allowed for the heat flux to be adjusted to meet the regulatory IAEA fire qualification criteria. Furthermore, a numerical model of the fire reference package was created using boundary conditions derived from the experimental data. The simulation results demonstrated good agreement with the experimental data and provided additional insights. T2 - Technical Exchange IRSN – BAM Transport & Storage of Packages for Radioactive Material CY - Cadarache, France DA - 13.10.2022 KW - Fire KW - IAEA KW - Propane PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-57251 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Feldkamp, Martin T1 - Combustion Chamber Design for Encapsulated Wood-Component Testing N2 - eavy-weight packages for the safe transport of radioactive material are equippedwith impact limiters often built ofwood-filled steel sheet structures to fulfil the requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regulations. The requirements definemechanical tests followed by a thermal test, including criteria ensuring the package design’s ability to withstand severe accidents and provide a high level of technical safety. Impact limiters are a package component mainly designed for the packages to withstand severe mechanical accident scenarios. In drop tests the impact limiters absorb the kinetic energy during impact of the package. The package must then - with its pre-damaged impact limiters - endure a thermal test defined precisely in the IAEA regulations as a 30-min fully engulfing 800 °C-fire. After the fire, a wood-filled impact limiter may continue to release thermal energy from an ongoing combustion process, defining relevant package temperatures. The energy flow from a possible burning impact limiter to the package is important for the safety evaluation of transport packages. To investigate the combustion behaviour of densely packed layers of spruce wood, encapsulated in pre-damaged cylindrical metal enclosures, a test set-up has been realised. The set-up consists of a combustion chamber to perform these tests under defined boundary conditions. The temperature development of the test specimens will be observed fromoutside with a thermographic imager, with HD-Cameras, and the mass loss will be measured during the entire test. Airflow conditions in the combustion chamber are analysed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) calculations in OpenFOAM. The planned combustion test setup is described. T2 - Wood & Fire Safety 2024 CY - Štrbské Pleso, Slovakia DA - 12.05.2024 KW - IAEA KW - Combustion Chamber KW - Smouldering KW - Wood PY - 2024 AN - OPUS4-60227 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Feldkamp, Martin 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 - PATRAM 2016 CY - Kobe, Japan DA - 18.09.2016 KW - Burning KW - Fire test KW - Impact limiter KW - Shock absorber KW - Thermal test KW - Typ-B KW - Wood KW - Smouldering KW - Large scale testing PY - 2016 AN - OPUS4-37842 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Feldkamp, Martin T1 - Aspects of Assessment of Packages with Wood Filled Impact Limiters during Fire Tests 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, Arizona, 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 AN - OPUS4-43170 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Feldkamp, Martin T1 - Investigations of the burning behavior of transport package impact limiters and thermal effects onto the cask 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. A first computational simulation of transport package temperatures taking into account the results of the conducted fire test was performed. T2 - IRSN Conference on Safe Transport of Radioactive Material CY - Fontenay aux Roses, France DA - 13.11.2018 KW - Impact limiter KW - Shock absorber KW - Smoldering KW - Smouldering KW - Burning KW - Thermal testing KW - BAM TTS KW - Combustion KW - Fire KW - Energy release KW - Thermal simulation KW - Heat emission KW - Radioactive KW - Transport KW - IAEA KW - Wood KW - Spruce wood KW - Lid temperature PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-46882 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -