A study on the local behaviour of steel–concrete interfaces at and around large openings in the PSC inner containment dome

A finite element (FEM) study has been made to know the overall structural behaviour of a PSC inner containment (IC) dome having large steam generator (SG) openings with emphasis on the local behaviour of the steel–concrete interfaces near SG openings, under initial prestress transfer. The primary thrust of the work has been in the objective of predicting the possibilities of separation at the steel–concrete interface zones adjacent to the embedded plates of the SG openings. For the FEM analysis, the interface zone has been modeled using gap elements, the properties of which are derived from the results of the past experiments conducted on steel plate–concrete interface specimens. Important observations have been made regarding dome deformation and the stresses with special emphasis on the local behaviour of steel–concrete interfaces at and around SG openings.