Aluminum honeycomb impact limiter study

Technical Report · Mon Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1991

OSTI ID:5404423

Yaksh, M C; Thompson, T C ^[1]; Nickell, R E ^[2]

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1. Nuclear Assurance Corp., Norcross, GA (United States)
2. Applied Science and Technology, Inc., Poway, CA (United States)

Design requirements for a cask transporting radioactive materials must include the condition of the 30-foot free fall of the cask onto an unyielding surface. To reduce the deceleration loads to a tolerable level for all the components of the cask, a component (impact limiter) is designed to absorb the kinetic energy. The material, shape, and method of attachment of the impact limiter to the cask body comprises the design of the impact limiter. The impact limiter material of interest is honeycomb aluminum, and the particular design examined was for the NAC Legal Weight Truck cask (NAC-LWT) for spent fuel from light water reactors. The NAC-LWT has a design weight of 52,000 pounds, and it has a nominal length of 200 inches. The report describes the numerical calculations embodied in the FADE program to determine the accelerations and crush strain resulting from an arbitrary height and angle of orientation. Since the program serves as a design tool, static tests are performed to assess the effect of the shell containing the honeycomb aluminum. The static tests and their results are contained in the study. The static tests are used to demonstrate for licensing purposes the level of accelerations imposed on the cask during a 30-foot drop. 3 refs., 41 figs., 15 tabs.

• Research Organization: Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States); Nuclear Assurance Corp., Norcross, GA (United States); Applied Science and Technology, Inc., Poway, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: EPRI; Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States)
• OSTI ID: 5404423
• Report Number(s): EPRI-NP-7389
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

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Handling
& Storage
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
42 ENGINEERING
420204* -- Engineering-- Shipping Containers
ACCELERATION
ALUMINIUM
CASKS
CONTAINERS
ELEMENTS
HONEYCOMB STRUCTURES
IMPACT TESTS
MATERIALS TESTING
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
MECHANICAL STRUCTURES
MECHANICAL TESTS
METALS
RECOMMENDATIONS
SPENT FUEL CASKS
STRAIN GAGES
TESTING