Crush Testing at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
- ORNL
The dynamic crush test is required in the certification testing of some small Type B transportation packages. International Atomic Energy Agency regulations state that the test article must be 'subjected to a dynamic crush test by positioning the specimen on the target so as to suffer maximum damage.' Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Transportation Technologies Group performs testing of Type B transportation packages, including the crush test, at the National Transportation Research Center in Knoxville, Tennessee (United States). This paper documents ORNL's experiences performing crush tests on several different Type B packages. ORNL has crush tested five different drum-type package designs, continuing its 60 year history of RAM package testing. A total of 26 crush tests have been performed in a wide variety of package orientations and crush plate CG alignments. In all cases, the deformation of the outer drum created by the crush test was significantly greater than the deformation damage caused by the 9 m drop test. The crush test is a highly effective means for testing structural soundness of smaller nondense Type B shipping package designs. Further regulatory guidance could alleviate the need to perform the crush test in a wide range of orientations and crush plate CG alignments.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). National Transportation Research Center (NTRC)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- EM USDOE - Environmental Restoration and Waste Management (EM)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 1020782
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 16th International Symposium on the Packaging and Transport of Radioactive Material (PATRAM), London, United Kingdom, 20101003, 20101008
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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