Failure mechanisms of equipment hatch area in prestressed concrete containment vessel

Abstract

The failure mechanisms of the equipment hatch area under two load cases (LCs), i.e. in-plane shear/tension and tension/tension to consider the combined action of ground motion and internal pressure and the action of internal pressure only, respectively, were experimentally studied with three specimens for each LC.The results show that the failure of the LC1 specimens is due to the eccentric tension in the vertical direction. The shear force in the lateral direction changes the stress distribution in the specimensand thus influence the crack nucleation and propagation. The failure modes of the LC2 specimens depend on the magnitude of the lateral tension. With the increase of the maximum lateral tension, the failure modes vary in the sequence of the horizontal cracking of concrete at the bottom of the specimen, the critical diagonal cracks on the top of the specimen and the failure of the narrowest part of the specimen.