Case Study
Fire & Impact Testing on a Nuclear Transportation Package
The Client
A global engineering company who
design and manufacture packages to transport radioactive
materials.
The Problem
Most packages that carry radioactive materials have to be
approved by the Radioactive Materials Transport programme within
the Office for Nuclear Regulation. This requires
the designer to demonstrate the package will contain the material
in the event of an accident, which could include fire and impact
damage. Our Client had predicted how the package would perform in
an accident, but they needed to validate their work by carrying out
tests.
What We Did
Technical experts from HSL's Fire Safety and Engineering Safety
teams designed a programme of experimental work to meet the
specifications our Client had agreed with.jpg "Fire & Imapact Testing - Nuclear")
the DfT.
Firstly, we delivered a series of
tests on a model of one section of the package. This included drop
testing using HSL's specifically designed 25 metre drop tower, and
fire testing within a gas heated furnace to expose the package to
temperatures in excess of 800 degrees celsius.
This first stage of testing allowed
our Client to understand how the package was likely to behave prior
to committing to the manufacture and testing of a full size
prototype. After reviewing these test results, and concluding a
design review assessment, full size prototypes were
manufactured.
In compliance with International
Atomic Energy Authority Regulations we undertook a number of 10 m
drop tests on the prototypes using our purpose-built, 4-metre deep
impact block. These tests represented a worst-case impact scenario
for the container. In each test, the package was in a different
drop orientation. We installed thirty transducers within the
package to measure deceleration at critical locations. The tests
were also recorded on high-speed video by our specialist, in-house
photographic unit.
Outcome/Benefits
Using HSL's measured data, our Client
was able to demonstrate that the damage from their predictions was
a reliable indicator of what would actually happen to the package
in different accident scenarios. The DfT were satisfied the
integrity of the package was acceptable, and awarded the
licence.
The heat transfer data collected
during the fire tests was also applied by our Client to the
development and validation of numerical models to aid the design of
future, fire-resistant transportation packages.
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