TY - CONF A1 - Jaunich, Matthias A1 - Grelle, Tobias A1 - Kömmling, Anja A1 - Wolff, Dietmar A1 - Völzke, Holger ED - Stuke, M. T1 - Long-term evaluation of sealing systems for radioactive waste packages N2 - The investigation of the long-term performance of sealing systems employed in containers for radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel is one research focus area for division 3.4 “Safety of Storage Containers” at the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM). Our investigations comprise investigations on metallic and elastomeric seals and covers experimental investigations to get a database on the component/material behaviour, work on analytical descriptions and numerical analysis. Our aim is to understand the long-term behaviour of the sealing systems for evaluation of their performance during possible extended interim storage and subsequent transportation. T2 - 3rd Workshop on Safety of Extended Dry Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel CY - Garching, Germany DA - 05.06.2019 KW - Seal performance KW - Rubber seal KW - Metallic seal KW - Ageing PY - 2019 SP - 57 EP - 62 AN - OPUS4-48225 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Grelle, Tobias A1 - Wolff, Dietmar A1 - Probst, Ulrich A1 - Jaunich, Matthias A1 - Völzke, Holger T1 - Component and material investigations on metal seals for high level radioactive waste containers N2 - Long-term investigations performed at BAM look to extend the state of knowledge on safety-related components of interim storage containers. Metal seals act as the primary sealing barrier in the bolted double lid closure system of the containers. The behaviour of metal seals has been investigated for ageing times up to 8.5 years and for various temperatures. The main cause for reduction in useable resilience overtime was due to creep deformation of the outer jacket of the seal. KW - Metal seal KW - Radioactive waste containers KW - Creep KW - Long-term behaviour PY - 2018 SN - 1745-2058 SP - 32 EP - 34 PB - Nuclear Institute CY - London AN - OPUS4-48206 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Weber, Mike A1 - Zencker, Uwe A1 - Wolff, Dietmar A1 - Jaunich, Matthias A1 - Kömmling, Anja A1 - Völzke, Holger A1 - Schulze, Dietmar T1 - Numerical simulation of the behaviour of elastomer seals under consideration of time dependent effects N2 - Due to delays in the site-selection procedure to establish a deep geological repository for spent nuclear fuel and high level waste and in construction of the already licensed Konrad-repository for low and intermediate level waste without heat generation, extended periods of interim storage become more relevant in Germany. BAM is involved in most of the cask licensing procedures and especially responsible for the evaluation of cask-related long-term safety issues. The long-term performance of elastomer seals for lid Systems of transport and storage casks whether used as auxiliary seals in spent fuel caslcs or as primary seals for low and intermediate level waste packages is an important issue in this context (Jaunich, 2013; Jaunich, 2014; Kömmling, 2015). The polymeric structure of these seals causes a complex mechanical behaviour with time-dependent elasticity reduction and loss of elastic recovery. The paper presents first results of a comprehensive test Programme consisting of several static and dynamic mechanical short- and long-term tests which have been carried out at BAM on specimens made of representative types of elastomers, fluorocarbon rubber (FKM) and ethylene propylene diene rubber (EPDM). The investigation of the test results used to identify material models and their Parameters as well as the development of two finite element models for the numerical Simulation of tension and compression tests using the finite element code ABAQUS® are described. The calculation results are presented in comparison to the test results. The influence of important material and test parameters was investigated and discussed in sensitivity analyses. T2 - RAMTRANSPORT 2015 - International conference on the radioactive materials transport and storage CY - Oxford, UK DA - 19.05.2015 KW - Numerical analysis KW - Extended interim storage KW - Elastomer seals PY - 2015 SP - Session 4, Paper 28, 1 EP - 9 AN - OPUS4-33832 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Jaunich, Matthias A1 - Wolff, Dietmar A1 - Stark, Wolfgang A1 - Völzke, Holger T1 - Investigation of elastomer seal behavior for transport and storage packages N2 - Rubbers are widely used as main sealing materials for containers for low and intermediate level radioactive waste and as additional component to metal seals in spent fuel and high active waste containers. According to appropriate guidelines and regulations safe enclosure of the radioactive container contents has to be guaranteed for long storage periods as well as down to temperatures of -40 °C for transportation. Therefore the understanding of seal behavior is of high importance. In this paper we focus on the behavior of elastomer seals at low temperatures with regard to poten-tial decrease of leak-tightness. In addition, changes in material properties due to aging effects over long periods of time and their influence on the seal performance is investigated. It is known that material properties of rubbers are strongly temperature dependent. At low tempera-tures this is caused by the rubber-glass transition (abbr. glass transition). During continuous cool-ing, the material changes from rubber-like entropy-elastic to stiff energy-elastic behavior, that al-lows nearly no strain or retraction due to the glass transition. Hence rubbers are normally used above their glass transition but the minimum working temperature limit is not defined precisely. Aging of elastomer seals is important, as possible dynamic loads may have to be considered during the whole interim storage period (so far approved in Germany for up to 40 years) and for transporta-tion after storage. For the investigations, fluorocarbon (FKM) and ethylene-propylene-diene (EPDM) rubbers were selected as they are often used in radioactive waste containers. Some materials were purchased from a commercial seal producer and some materials were compounded and cured at BAM. The elastom-ers where studied by several thermo-analytical methods and compression set to characterize the material behavior at low temperatures. Additionally component tests were performed to determine the breakdown temperature of the sealing function of complete elastomer O-rings. T2 - PATRAM 2013 - 17th International symposium on the packaging and transportation of radioactive materials CY - San Francisco, CA, USA DA - 18.08.2013 PY - 2013 SP - Paper 227, 1 EP - 8 PB - Omnipress AN - OPUS4-30377 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Grelle, Tobias A1 - Wolff, Dietmar A1 - Probst, Ulrich A1 - Jaunich, Matthias A1 - Völzke, Holger T1 - Component and material investigations on metal seals for high level radioactive waste containers N2 - In Germany casks for interim storage of spent nuclear fuel and high level radioactive waste are equipped with Helicoflex® metal seals as main sealing barrier of the double lid system. The long-term behaviour of those seals is investigated at Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und –prüfung (BAM) in order to evaluate the safety function of the containment at different temperatures over storage periods of 40 years or more in case extended interim storage becomes necessary. Long-term investigations have been done for ageing times of up to 8.5 years at temperatures ranging from room temperature to 150 °C. It was found that the seal force and useable resilience decrease over time, which is mainly caused by creep deformation of the aluminium (or silver) outer jacket of the seals. This effect becomes stronger with increasing temperature. The ageing processes of the seal material and the overall seal behaviour is under investigation in order to derive analytical descriptions for the long-term seal performance. Thus, standardized tests on the basic seal materials, with focus on aluminium, and additional investigations on the seals as a component are conducted. The current investigations include compression and tension creep measurements as well as tensile testing. Furthermore, ageing of seal segments provides information on the development of the contact area width, jacket thickness and microstructural changes in dependence of time and temperature. The obtained data are used for the development of material models and an analytical approach to describe and predict the time and temperature dependent sealing behaviour in the long-term. T2 - 11th International Conference on the Transport, Storage and Disposal of Radioactive Materials CY - London, UK DA - 15.05.2018 KW - Metal seal KW - Creep KW - Long-term behavior PY - 2018 SP - 18535, 1 EP - 6 AN - OPUS4-45452 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Shirai, K. A1 - Namba, K. A1 - Wataru, M. A1 - Völzke, Holger A1 - Wolff, Dietmar A1 - Probst, Ulrich A1 - Jaunich, Matthias A1 - Schulz, Sebastian T1 - Numerical evaluation of the long-term sealing performance of the silver gasket for dual purpose metal cask under high temperature N2 - It is important to evaluate the effect of thermal ageing on the sealing performance of metal gaskets under high temperature for long-term usage. Therefore, in order to gain representative data for this kind of metal-sealed lid System, BAM is currently performing laboratory tests of different gasket types with aluminum and silver jackets at three different temperatures under static conditions up to four years so far, using test flanges for gaskets with full scale cross section diameter but much smaller outer diameter. On the other hand, in order to investigate the applicability of the numerical methodology to evaluate the long-term behavior of the metal gaskets, such as a correlation between seal pressure force and holding time, CRIEPI is developing a modeling method including material tests (tensile and creep tests) at high temperature. In this paper, the applicability of the finite element method (ABAQUS) to predict the recovery displacement and residual seal pressure force of the gasket complex was verified by comparing the calculated values with BAM’s laboratory test results under the joint research agreement between BAM and CRIEPI. T2 - PATRAM 2013 - 17th International symposium on the packaging and transportation of radioactive materials CY - San Francisco, CA, USA DA - 18.08.2013 KW - Metal seals KW - Extended storage KW - Long-term storage KW - Dual purpose cask PY - 2013 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - Omnipress AN - OPUS4-31947 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Jaunich, Matthias A1 - Goral, Milan A1 - Sagradov, Ilja A1 - Wolff, Dietmar A1 - Völzke, Holger T1 - Aging investigations of metal seals used in containers for interim storage of spent fuel N2 - For bolted casks for used fuel and high level waste the sealing system has an important impact of ensuring safe enclosure of the inventory The used metal seals show some changes over time which have been addressed for nearly 15 years in running experiments at BAM The observed changes are temperature de pendent and therefore it is expected that test s at higher temperature allow for an acceleration of the effects and ideally the proposal of an ageing model covering the expected time of use . Nevertheless, questions concerning the influence of the experimental approach on the results and effects taking place at the initial days of ageing remain. To address these a new project was launched to give a better understanding of the seal behavior. T2 - PVP2024, Pressure Vessels & Piping Conference CY - Bellevue, WA, USA DA - 29.07.2024 KW - Metal seal KW - Aging KW - Interim storage PY - 2024 SN - 978-0-7918-8851-3 SP - 1 EP - 4 PB - ASME AN - OPUS4-61357 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Jaunich, Matthias A1 - Hagenow, Peter A1 - Kasparek, Eva Maria A1 - Kömmling, Anja A1 - Noack, Volker A1 - Völzke, Holger A1 - Wolff, Dietmar T1 - Requirements for the use of elastomer seals in casks for final disposal of low and intermediate level waste N2 - Elastomer seals are widely used as barrier seals in containers for low and intermediate level radioactive waste and in some countries for spent fuel transportation casks. Depending on the area of use, the rubber materials have to demonstrate proper sealing performance with regard to mechanical, thermal and environmental conditions as well as irradiation during the entire operation period. In Germany the low and intermediate level radioactive waste is planned to be disposed in the Konrad repository in standardized containers. Many of these containers use an elastomer seal between lid and container body. Depending on the radiactive inventory and a possible containment of the waste in inner barrels and/or concrete structures, such containers may require a specific leak tightness. In such cases, specified leakage rates are shall not be exceeded by the the seals to keep potential activity releases from the inventories well below defined limits. Generally, all waste containers have to fulfill the waste acceptance criteria for the Konrad repository as defined by the reports BfS SE-IB-29/08 and SE-IB-30/08. From these criteria several requirements for seal performance are derived. The seals have to: - ensure full functionality until final container disposal, - maintain its function in case of a thermal or mechanical accident, - ensure encapsulation also at -20 °C. This combination of requirements is challenging especially as a seal exchange, which is typical for many other applications, is hardly possible and thus a sound understanding of how to perform safety evaluation of containers is required. Therefore BAM has initiated investigations on elastomer seal behaviour. This work focuses on low temperature behaviour and sealing performance concerning static conditions as well as partial loss of compression and ageing of elastomer seals. Concerning ageing, property changes caused by long-term thermooxidative conditions as well as gamma irradiation are investigated. This contribution presents an overview and explanation of the aims of the ongoing research and gives an update of the most relevant results. T2 - 13th Internationales Symposium "Konditionierung radioaktiver Betriebs- und Stillegungsabfälle CY - Dresden, Germany DA - 22.03.2017 KW - Disposal KW - Konrad repository KW - Seal PY - 2017 SP - 595 EP - 601 AN - OPUS4-39870 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Jaunich, Matthias A1 - Kömmling, Anja A1 - Horn, Jutta A1 - Völzke, Holger A1 - Wolff, Dietmar T1 - Long-Term Performance of Elastomer seals - From Aging Tests to Lifetime Estimations N2 - Elastomers show a high versatility which makes them ideal materials for sealing applications in various fields. Especially under changing application conditions the high recovery potential of this class of material is beneficial to compensate temperature or pressure fluctuation, and geometrical changes resulting from mechanical loads in e.g. accident conditions. Out of these reasons elastomers are also used in containers for low and intermediate level radioactive waste and for spent fuel transportation casks. In casks designed for low and intermediate level waste elastomer seals can act as primary seal responsible for the containment function whereas in spent fuel storage and transportation casks (dual purpose casks (DPC)) elastomer seals are used as auxiliary seals to allow leakage rate measurements of metal barrier seals. An inherent prerequisite for this kind of application is the Long time-scale of operation without or with limited possibility of seal replacement. In Germany an interim storage license for DPC`s is typically issued for 40 years, a timeframe which might increase in the future due to challenges of the final repository siting procedure. For low and intermediate level waste, also long time periods are required before final disposal can be achieved. Therefore, the performance of elastomer seals over extended time periods is, as for other applications, of high importance. A typical approach to ensure long-term functionality is to perform accelerated aging tests to calculate an estimated lifetime by assuming e.g. Arrhenius like equations for the timetemperature relationship. This approach requires a suitable end of life criterion considering the application of interest. This often can represent a challenge on its own. As BAM is involved in most of the cask licensing procedures and especially responsible for the evaluation of cask-related long-term safety issues we initiated several test programs for investigating the behavior of elastomer seals. Experiments concerning the low temperature performance down to -40 °C and the influence of gamma irradiation have been started first. Currently the thermal aging behavior of elastomer seals, which is the topic of this contribution, is examined. For our aging investigations we use a broad approach to first determine the property changes in different elastomer materials due to thermo-oxidative aging at elevated temperatures and secondly, we test how the typical methods of lifetime extrapolation can be applied to these results. This Approach enables us to detect and exclude undesired side effects which very often influence lifetime estimations. In this contribution, our recent results are extended. The results show that lifetime estimation based on single material properties can be misleading and therefore a combination of several methods is recommended. T2 - ASME 2018 Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference CY - Prague, Czech Republic DA - 15.07.2018 KW - Seal performance KW - Rubber KW - Ageing PY - 2018 VL - PVP2018 SP - 84631-1 EP - 84631-8 AN - OPUS4-46346 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - GEN A1 - Goral, Milan A1 - Kömmling, Anja A1 - Probst, Ulrich A1 - Wossidlo, Peter A1 - Jaunich, Matthias A1 - Wolff, Dietmar A1 - Völzke, Holger T1 - Langzeitversuche über 10 Jahre an Federkern-Metalldichtungen mit Aluminium- bzw. Silberummantelungen N2 - Federunterstützte Metalldichtungen mit Aluminium(Al)- oder Silber(Ag)-Ummantelung werden u.a. in Behältern für Wärme entwickelnde radioaktive Abfälle eingesetzt, da diese Dichtungen eine sehr gute Dichtheit gewährleisten sowie Langlebigkeit und Beständigkeit gegenüber erhöhten Temperaturen und radioaktiver Strahlung aufweisen. Auch wenn die Sicherheit solcher Behälter und der verwendeten Dichtungen vielfach belegt wurde, sind sie Gegenstand andauernder Forschung, etwa im Hinblick auf eine absehbar benötigte verlängerte Zwischenlagerdauer. Aus diesem Grund werden an der Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) im Fachbereich 3.4 „Sicherheit von Lagerbehältern“ seit über 20 Jahren Versuche an solchen Metalldichtungen durchgeführt. Dabei sollen zusätzliche Erkenntnisse hinsichtlich der Sicherheitsreserven der Dichtungen in unterstellten Störfallszenarien (axiale Bewegung des Deckelsystems bzw. Aufweitung der Nutgeometrie) und insbesondere detailliertere Erkenntnisse zum Langzeitverhalten gewonnen werden. KW - Federunterstützte Metalldichtungen KW - Transport- und Lagerbehälter für radioaktive Stoffe KW - Langzeitversuche KW - Alterung KW - Dichtheit KW - Leckagerate KW - Helium-Dichtheitsprüfung PY - 2023 VL - 2023 SP - 43 EP - 63 PB - ISGATEC GmbH CY - Mannheim AN - OPUS4-56399 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -