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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.