Nuclear containment structure subjected to commercial and fighter aircraft crash

• Nuclear containment response has been studied against aircraft crash.
• Concrete damaged plasticity and Johnson–Cook elasto-viscoplastic models were employed.
• Boeing 747-400 and Boeing 767-400 aircrafts caused global failure of containment.
• Airbus A320 and Boeing 707-320 aircrafts caused local damage.
• Tension damage of concrete was found more prominent compared to compression damage.

The response of a boiling water reactor (BWR) nuclear containment vessel has been studied against commercial and fighter aircraft crash using a nonlinear finite element code ABAQUS. The aircrafts employed were Boeing 747-400, Boeing 767-400, Airbus A-320, Boeing 707-320 and Phantom F4. The containment was modeled as a three-dimensional deformable reinforced concrete structure while the loading of aircraft was assigned using the respective reaction–time curve. The location of strike was considered near the junction of dome and cylinder, and the angle of incidence, normal to the containment surface. The material behavior of the concrete was incorporated using the damaged plasticity model while that of the reinforcement, the Johnson–Cook elasto-viscoplastic model. The containment could not sustain the impact of Boeing 747-400 and Boeing 767-400 aircrafts and suffered rupture of concrete around the impact region leading to global failure. On the other hand, the maximum local deformation at the point of impact was found to be 0.998 m, 0.099 m, 0.092 m, 0.089 m, and 0.074 m against Boeing 747-400, Phantom F4, Boeing 767, Boeing 707-320 and Airbus A-320 aircrafts respectively. The results of the present study were compared with those of the previous analytical and numerical investigations with respect to the maximum deformation and overall behavior of the containment.