Failure analysis of prestressed concrete containment vessels under internal pressure considering thermomechanical coupling

Autor: Yu-Xiao Wu, Zi-Jian Fei, De-Cheng Feng, Meng-Yan Song
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Nuclear Engineering and Technology, Vol 55, Iss 12, Pp 4504-4517 (2023)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1738-5733
DOI: 10.1016/j.net.2023.08.022
Popis: After a loss of coolant accident (LOCA) in the prestressed concrete containment vessels (PCCVs) of nuclear power plants, the coupling of temperature and pressure can significantly affect the mechanical properties of the PCCVs. However, there is no consensus on how this coupling affects the failure mechanism of PCCVs. In this paper, a simplified finite element modeling method is proposed to study the effect of temperature and pressure coupling on PCCVs. The experiment results of a 1:4 scale PCCV model tested at Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) are compared with the results obtained from the proposed modeling approach. Seven working conditions are set up by varying the internal and external temperatures to investigate the failure mechanism of the PCCV model under the coupling effect of temperature and pressure. The results of this paper demonstrate that the finite element model established by the simplified finite element method proposed in this paper is highly consistent with the experimental results. Furthermore, the stress-displacement curve of the PCCV during loading can be divided into four stages, each of which corresponds to the damage to the concrete, steel liner, steel rebar, and prestressing tendon. Finally, the failure mechanism of the PCCV is significantly affected by temperature.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals