Fracture mechanics analysis of multipurpose canister for spent nuclear fuels under horizontal/oblique drop accidents

Abstract

In this paper, elastic-plastic fracture mechanics analysis is performed to determine the critical crack sizes of the multipurpose canister (MPC) manufactured using austenitic stainless steel under dynamic loading conditions that simulate drop accidents. Firstly, dynamic finite element (FE) analysis is performed using Abaqus v.2018 with the KORAD (Korea Radioactive Waste Agency)-21 model under two drop accident conditions. Through the FE analysis, critical locations and through-thickness stress distributions in the MPC are identified, where the maximum plastic strain occurs during impact loadings. Then, the evaluation using the failure assessment diagram (FAD) is performed by postulating an external surface crack at the critical location to determine the critical crack depth. It is found that, for the drop cases considered in this paper, the principal failure mechanism for the circumferential surface crack is found to be the plastic collapse due to dominant high bending axial stress in the thickness. For axial cracks, the plastic collapse is also the dominant failure mechanism due to high membrane hoop stress, followed by the ductile tearing analysis. When incorporating the strain rate effect on yield strength and fracture toughness, the critical crack depth increases from 10 to 20%.