High-fidelity numerical analysis of the damage and failure mechanisms of a prestressed concrete containment vessel under internal pressure

Abstract

The safety of nuclear power plants, which is of great public concern, depends largely on the safety of prestressed concrete containment vessels (PCCVs). To ensure the safety of PCCVs, researchers have conducted many experimental investigations and numerical simulations in recent decades. In this paper, we present an enhanced finite element framework for damage and failure analysis of PCCVs. The framework incorporates element formulations, material models and structural solution algorithms. The multilayered shell element is used to simulate the in-plane/out-of-plane behaviors of the vessels, the softened damage-plasticity model is used for modeling the concrete under the complex stress state, and the quasi-Newton method with a two-level secant stiffness updating strategy is adopted to improve the computational convergence performance and robustness. To demonstrate the performance of the framework, the 1:4-scale PCCV model tested by the Sandia National Lab is applied. The ultimate capacity, whole deformations and damage patterns are all captured well. In addition, the local deformation at different parts is also consistent with the experimental results. Good agreement between the numerical results and the experimental data indicates that this analysis framework is a high-fidelity, relatively simple and efficient procedure for simulating the behavior of PCCVs.