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- Drop test (2)
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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.
In context with Japanese disposal and transport container safety assessment the German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung) per-formed extensive drop test series with prototypes of RAM packages in recent years.
The paper presents two cooperative projects focused on project management, testing performance and experimental results.
In the first project, a full-scale prototype of a package for transport and storage of spent fuel elements with a total mass of 127,000 kg and its reduced-scale model which was similar to the prototype in both geometry and design were drop tested in 9 m and 1 m puncture tests at various drop orientations under regulatory conditions. In context with a corresponding research project the test data was used in combination with numerical methods to investigate the phenomenon of internal cask- content collisions during drop tests. Here, technological gaps between basket or radioactive content and cask body or primary lid can be a reason for significant high dynamic loadings of cask components and its internals due to additional impact interactions in the cask cavity caused by inner relative movement between content and cask. Further investigations were carried out in the field of similarity mechanics comparing experimental drop test data of the full-scale prototype and reduced-scale model in regard to the transferability of package impact response from reduced-scale models to full-scale packages.
In the second project, drop tests with a waste container for intermediate depth disposal were per-formed being contracted by Kobe Steel, Ltd. and a consortium of Japanese electric power plant com-panies. The drop test program comprised three single 8-m drop tests in a specimen’s corner edge orientation. For drop tests according to legal regulations for interim storage or final disposal it is often necessary to use a target which represents the real ground of the storage facility. In such cases the container hits directly onto a well-defined concrete slab on top of the IAEA target. Here, the directly impact target for the drop tests were concrete slabs manufactured in Japan and connected by mortar to the impact pad of the unyielding IAEA target.
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.
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.