AstudyonthefreedropimpactofacaskusingcommercialFEAcodes

Thepackageusedtotransportradioactivematerials,whichiscalledacask,mustbedesignedtokeepitscontentssafeundernormalandhypotheticalaccidentconditions.Thedesignrequirementsofthecaskareverifiedbytestorfiniteelementanalysis(FEA).Comparingevaluationproceduresforthesafetyofanewcask,thecostofFEAisgenerallymuchlessthanthattest.Therefore,FEAismainlyusedtoverifysafetyofacaskundertheconsideredconditions.However,onecommercialFEAcodemayshowdifferentresultsfromanotherFEAcodeforthesameproblemduetothemodelerʹsseveralassumptionsforsimplifyingactualstatesintotheFEmodelandduetomodelingtechnique.Materialsofthecomponentsofacaskdisplayelastic–plasticorelastic–perfectlyplasticbehaviorundertheconsideredconditionsinwhichlargedeformation,impactandcontactmechanismareincluded.ThebehaviorissimulatedwithdifficultyandmayhavedifferentresultsdependingonFEAcodes.Inthispaper,finiteelementanalysisiscarriedoutforthe9-mfreedropandthepunctureconditionunderthehypotheticalaccidentconditionbyusingLS-DYNA3DandABAQUS/Explicit.EnergyandeffectivestressoneachcomponentarepresentedandcomparedbetweenthetwoFEAcodes,wheretheeffectivestressdesignatesthemaximumvonMisesstressoninnerandoutershells.