• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.756-765
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• 2015

Background: Fibers have been used in cement mixture to improve its toughness, ductility, and tensile strength, and to enhance the cracking and deformation characteristics of concrete structural members. The addition of fibers into conventional reinforced concrete can enhance the structural and functional performances of safety-related concrete structures in nuclear power plants. Methods: The effects of steel and polyamide fibers on the shear resisting capacity of a prestressed concrete containment vessel (PCCV) were investigated in this study. For a comparative evaluation between the shear performances of structural walls constructed with conventional concrete, steel fiber reinforced concrete, and polyamide fiber reinforced concrete, cyclic tests for wall specimens were conducted and hysteretic models were derived. Results: The shear resisting capacity of a PCCV constructed with fiber reinforced concrete can be improved considerably. When steel fiber reinforced concrete contains hooked steel fibers in a volume fraction of 1.0%, the maximum lateral displacement of a PCCV can be improved by > 50%, in comparison with that of a conventional PCCV. When polyamide fiber reinforced concrete contains polyamide fibers in a volume fraction of 1.5%, the maximum lateral displacement of a PCCV can be enhanced by ~40%. In particular, the energy dissipation capacity in a fiber reinforced PCCV can be enhanced by > 200%. Conclusion: The addition of fibers into conventional concrete increases the ductility and energy dissipation of wall structures significantly. Fibers can be effectively used to improve the structural performance of a PCCV subjected to strong ground motions. Steel fibers are more effective in enhancing the shear performance of a PCCV than polyamide fibers.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.7
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• pp.884-894
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• 2015

Background: Fibers in concrete resist the growth of cracks and enhance the postcracking behavior of structures. The addition of fibers into a conventional reinforced concrete can improve the structural and functional performance of safety-related concrete structures in nuclear power plants. Methods: The influence of fibers on the ultimate internal pressure capacity of a prestressed concrete containment vessel (PCCV) was investigated through a comparison of the ultimate pressure capacities between conventional and fiber-reinforced PCCVs. Steel and polyamide fibers were used. The tension behaviors of conventional concrete and fiber-reinforced concrete specimens were investigated through uniaxial tension tests and their tension-stiffening models were obtained. Results: For a PCCV reinforced with 1% volume hooked-end steel fiber, the ultimate pressure capacity increased by approximately 12% in comparison with that for a conventional PCCV. For a PCCV reinforced with 1.5% volume polyamide fiber, an increase of approximately 3% was estimated for the ultimate pressure capacity. Conclusion: The ultimate pressure capacity can be greatly improved by introducing steel and polyamide fibers in a conventional reinforced concrete. Steel fibers are more effective at enhancing the containment performance of a PCCV than polyamide fibers. The fiber reinforcementwas shown to bemore effective at a high pressure loading and a lowprestress level.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.2156-2172
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• 2022

This paper investigates the optimum fiber reinforcement for prestressed concrete containment vessels (PCCVs) under internal pressure. To achieve this aim, steel fiber, which is the most widely used fiber type in current engineering applications, is adopted to constitute steel fiber-reinforced concrete (SFRC) to substitute the conventional concrete in the PCCV. The effects of characteristic parameters, 𝜆_sf, of the steel fiber affecting significantly the mechanical behavior of the concrete are first taken into account. Partial or complete concrete regions of the PCCV are also considered to be replaced by SFRC to balance the economy and safety. By adopting the ABAQUS software, the ultimate bearing capacity and performance for the fiber-reinforced PCCV are scientifically studied and quantified, and the recommendations for the optimum way of fiber reinforcement are presented.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.512-527
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• 2004

This paper describes the finite element (FE) analysis results of a 1/4 scale model of a prestressed concrete containment vessel (PCCV) by considering the tension stiffening effect, which is a result of the bond effect between the concrete and the steel. The tension stiffening model is assumed to be an exponential form based on the relationship between the average stress and the average strain of the concrete. The objective of the present FE analysis is to evaluate the ultimate internal pressure capacity of the PCCV, as well as its failure mechanism, when the PCCV model is subjected to a monotonous internal pressure beyond is design pressure capacity. With the commercial code ABAQUS, the FE analysis used two concrete failure criteria: a 2-dimensional axi-symmetric model with modified Drucker-Prager failure criteria and a 3-dimensional model with a damaged plasticity mod디. The results of our FE analysis on the ultimate pressure capacity and failure modes of PCCV have a good agreement with the experimental data.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.77-86
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• 2008

This paper describes the nonlinear analyses of a 1:4 scale model of a prestressed concrete containment vessel (PCCV) using an axisymmetric model and a three-dimensional model. These two models are refined by comparison of the analysis results and with testing results. This paper is especially focused on the analysis of behavior under pressure and the temperature effects revealed using an axisymmetric model. The temperature-dependent degradation properties of concrete and steel are considered. Both geometric and material nonlinearities, including thermal effects, are also addressed in the analyses. The Menetrey and Willam (1995) concrete constitutive model with non-associated flow potential is adopted for this study. This study includes the results of the predicted thermal and mechanical behaviors of the PCCV subject to high temperature loading and internal pressure at the same time. To find the effect of high temperature accident conditions on the ultimate capacity of the liner plate, reinforcement, prestressing tendon and concrete, two kinds of analyses are performed: one for pressure only and the other for pressure with temperature. The results from the test on pressurization, analysis for pressure only, and analyses considering pressure with temperatures are compared with one another. The analysis results show that the temperature directly affects the behavior of the liner plate, but has little impact on the ultimate pressure capacity of the PCCV.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.12
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• pp.4504-4517
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• 2023

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.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.127-143
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• 2014

LOCA (Loss Of Coolant Accident) is one of the most important utmost accidents for Prestressed Concrete Containment Vessel (PCCV) due to its coupled effect of high temperature and inner pressure. In this paper, heat conduction analysis is used to obtain the LOCA temperature distribution of PCCV. Then the elastic internal force of PCCV under LOCA temperature is analyzed by using both simplified theoretical method and FEM (finite element methods) method. Considering the coupled effect of LOCA temperature, a nonlinear elasto-plasitic analysis is conducted for PCCV under utmost internal pressure considering three failure criteria. Results show that the LOCA temperature distribution is strongly nonlinear along the shell thickness at the early time; the moment result of simplified analysis is well coincident with the one of numerical analysis at weak constraint area; while in the strong constrained area, the value of moments and membrane forces fluctuate dramatically; the simplified and numerical analysis both show that the maximum moment occurs at 6hrs after LOCA.; the strain of PCCV under LOCA temperature is larger than the one of no temperature under elasto-plastic analysis; the LOCA temperature of 6hrs has the greatest influence on the ultimate bearing capacity with 8.43% decrease for failure criteria 1 and 2.65% decrease for failure criteria 3.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.301-308
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• 2004

The present study mainly focuses on the inelastic stress analysis of the 1/4 scale prestressed concrete containment vessel model(PCCV) under internal pressure and evaluates not only failure mode but also ultimate pressure capacity of the PCCV. Inelastic analysis is carried out 2D axisymmertic FE model and 3D FE model using four concrete material models which are Drucker-Prager Model, Chen-Chen Model, Damaged Plasticity Model and Menetrey-Willam Model. The uplift phenomenon of the basemat is considered in the 2D axisymmetric FE models. It is found from the 2D axisymmetric analysis results that both of Drucker-Prager model and Damaged Plasticity Model have a good performance and the uplift of the basemat is too small to influence on the global behavior of the PCCV. The FE analysis results on the ultimate pressure and failure mode have a good agreement with experimental results.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2006.04a
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• pp.639-646
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• 2006

A nonlinear finite element analysis is carried out to predict the ultimate internal pressure and failure mechanism of a 1/4 scale prestressed concrete containment vessel(PCCV) model using the commercial code ABAQUS. Therefore, this paper is mainly focused to compare the influence of concrete material model, tension stiffening parameter, uplift phenomenon and basemat. From the analysis results, nonlinear behavior of the PCCV showed a substantially different aspects in accordance with the nonlinear material model for the concrete as well as tension stiffening parameter. The boundary conditions beneath the basemat are considered to be a fixed condition and a nonlinear spring element to compare the influence of the uplift. The finite element analysis is considered with and without a basemat to find out the influence of the basemant itself. From the analysis results, the nonlinear behavior of the PCCV is entirely similar for the two cases.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.2069-2087
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• 2023

In nuclear power plant (NPP) accidents, the containment is subject to high temperatures and high internal pressures, which may further trigger serious chain accidents such as core meltdown and hydrogen explosion, resulting in a significantly higher accident level. Therefore, studying the mechanical performance of a containment under high temperature and high internal pressure is relevant to the safety of NPPs. Based on similarity principles, the 1:3.2 scale model of a prestressed concrete containment vessel (PCCV) of a NPP was designed. The loading method, which considers the thermal-pressure coupling conditions, was used. The mechanical response of the PCCV was investigated with a simultaneous increase in internal pressure and temperature, and the failure mechanism of the PCCV under thermal-pressure coupling conditions was revealed.