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Functional and structural failure mode overpressurization tests of 1:4-scale prestressed concrete containment vessel model

Hessheimer, Michael F.; Hessheimer, Michael F.

A 1:4-scale model of a prestressed concrete containment vessel (PCCV), representative of a pressurized water reactor (PWR) plant in Japan, was constructed by NUPEC at Sandia National Laboratories from January 1997 through June, 2000. Concurrently, Sandia instrumented the model with nearly 1500 transducers to measure strain, displacement and forces in the model from prestressing through the pressure testing. The limit state test of the PCCV model, culminating in functional failure (i.e. leakage by cracking and liner tearing) was conducted in September, 2000 at Sandia National Laboratories. After inspecting the model and the data after the limit state test, it became clear that, other than liner tearing and leakage, structural damage was limited to concrete cracking and the overall structural response (displacements, rebar and tendon strains, etc.) was only slightly beyond yield. (Global hoop strains at the mid-height of the cylinder only reached 0.4%, approximately twice the yield strain in steel.) In order to provide additional structural response data, for comparison with inelastic response conditions, the PCCV model filled nearly full with water and pressurized to 3.6 times the design pressure, when a catastrophic rupture occurred preceded only briefly by successive tensile failure of several hoop tendons. This paper summarizes the results of these tests.