Damage assessment of nuclear containment against aircraft crash

The behavior of nuclear containment structure has been studied against aircraft crash with an emphasis on the influence of strike location. The impact locations identified on the BWR Mark III type nuclear containment structure are mid-height, junction of dome and cylinder, crown of dome and arc of dome. The containment at each of the above locations has been impacted normally by Phantom F-4, Boeing 707-320 and Airbus A320 aircrafts. The loading of the aircraft has been assigned through the corresponding reaction-time response curve. ABAQUS/Explicit finite element code has been used to carry out the three-dimensional numerical simulations. The concrete damaged plasticity model was used to simulate the behavior of concrete while the behavior of steel reinforcement was incorporated using the Johnson-Cook elasto-viscoplastic material model. The mid-height of containment has been found to experience most severe deformation against each aircraft. Phantom F4 has been found to be most disastrous at each location. The results have been compared with those of the available studies with respect to the containment deformation.