Preliminary Conceptual Design of a Thick Concrete Nondestructive Evaluation Specimen

Technical Report · Thu May 01 04:00:00 EDT 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1131523· OSTI ID:1131523

Clayton, Dwight A. ^[1]; Hoegh, Kyle ^[2]; Khazanovich, Lev ^[2]; Hileman, Michael S. ^[1]

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1. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
2. Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)

Many important safety structures in a nuclear power plant (NPP) are constructed using concrete. The purpose of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy’s Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program is to develop technologies and other solutions that can improve the reliability, sustain the safety, and extend the operating lifetimes of NPPs beyond 60 years. In order to evaluate the current status of NPP structures, concrete inspection techniques must be developed and tested. Since in-service containment structures do not allow for destructive measures necessary to validate the accuracy of these inspection techniques, comparative testing of the various nondestructive evaluation (NDE) concrete measurement techniques will require concrete specimens with known material properties, voids, internal microstructure flaws, and reinforcement locations. This report examines the need and availability of large concrete specimens to allow comparative testing of various NDE techniques, and the structural characteristics necessary for the specimens to serve as relevant representations of actual concrete structures in commercial NPPs.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1131523
• Report Number(s): ORNL/TM--2014/146; RC0304000; NERC006
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

concrete NDE
nondestructive evaluation
nuclear power