Analysis, scale modeling, and full scale tests of a truck spent-nuclear-fuel shipping system in high velocity impacts against a rigid barrier

Abstract

The report describes analyses conducted to predict the response of a truck tractor-trailer system with a spent-nuclear-fuel shipping cask in very severe (98 to 135 kilometers per hour) head-on crashes into a rigid concrete structure. The analyses include both mathematical and physical scale modeling of the system. The results of the analyses are compared to the results of instrumented full-scale tests conducted as the last step in the research program described in the report.