Response of outer containment of an NPP against aircraft crash and induced fire

Nuclear energy presently contributes more than 17% of global energy demand. In order to avoid the nuclear disasters, safety concern in nuclear structures is always of high concern. In the present study, response analysis of the outer containment of a typical Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) has been carried out against aircraft impact using finite element code ABAQUS. To maximise the effect of collision, the wall is considered as flat in the present study. Moreover, to maintain computational economy, only a quarter of the wall has been modelled. A 1.2 m thick doubly reinforced concrete wall has been simulated in the present study. Behaviour of concrete has been incorporated using Concrete Damaged Plasticity model while the Johnson Cook elastic-viscoplastic model has been used for reinforcement. Material parameters at elevated temperature have been taken from Eurocode 2. Reaction time response curve of Boeing 707-320 has been employed to find the response of containment against aircraft crash. Thermal stress analysis has been performed by combining the impact and heat effect together. It has been assumed that fire starts at 0.16 s after the application of impact load. A maximum deformation of 48 mm has been noticed. Maximum temperature was found to be 974 °C.