Year
2012
Abstract
According to disposal requirements, containers for radioactive waste have to withstand drop tests at defined conditions corresponding to the considered package category. Alternatively to prototype drop tests, numerical methods can be applied, if they are suitable and sufficiently verified. In this context BAM (Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing) started the research project ConDrop to develop a reliable Finite Element (FE) model describing the mechanical behavior of a box shaped steel container during a drop test and to determine unfavorable scenarios within future safety assessment procedures of comparable steel sheet containers. In a first step, a FE model of a representative steel sheet container was developed. Flat bottom-side drop tests with the unloaded container from different heights onto an IAEA target were simulated. In order to verify the numerical calculations, two drop tests with an unloaded KONRAD Type V steel sheet container were carried out at the BAM drop test facility. Both drop tests (flat drop from heights 0.4 m and 5 m onto the unyielding IAEA target) had been documented by various extensive measurements: strain and deceleration measurement by means of strain gauges and accelerometers, high-speed video as well as optical 3D-measurements using the method of projected fringes in combination with close range photogrammetry. The measured strain and deceleration values are presented and compared with the calculated results.