A numerical approach for assessing internal pressure capacity at liner failure in the expanded free-field of the prestressed concrete containment vessel

Since containment building is the major shielding structure to ensure safety of nuclear power plant, the structural behavior and ultimate pressure capacity of containments must be studied in depth. This paper addresses ambiguous issue of determining free-field position for liner failure by suggesting an expanded free-field region and comparing internal pressure capacities obtained by test data, conservative assumption and suggested free-field region. For this purpose, a practical approach to determine the free-field position for the evaluation of liner tearing is carried out. The maximum principal strain histories versus internal pressure capacities among different free-field positions at various azimuths and elevations are compared with those at the equipment hatch as a conservative assumption. The comparison shows that there are considerable differences in the internal pressure capacity at liner failure within the expanded free-field region compared to the vicinity of the equipment hatch. Additionally, this study proposes an approximate correlation with conservative factors by considering the expanded free-field ranges and material characteristics to determine realistic failure criteria for liner. The applicability of the proposed correlation is demonstrated by comparing the internal pressure capacities of full-scale containment buildings following liner failure criteria according to RG 1.216 and an approximate correlation.