Experimental and numerical investigations on roof slab of a pool type sodium cooled fast reactor based on model studies

•The structural integrity of the roof slab of 500MWe sodium cooled fast reactor is predicted under static loading conditions.•A scaling down approach was adopted to reduce the cost of experimentation.•Experiments on 1/12th scaled down model of the roof slab made of Perspex material are carried out and test data is compared with the results of numerical simulation.•The investigations carried out on the model demonstrate the robustness of the analysis as well as raise the confidence on the structural integrity of the roof slab. The objective of the work is to predict the structural integrity of the roof slab of 500MWe sodium cooled fast reactor (SFR) under static loading conditions. The roof slab is an annular box type structure consisting of top and bottom plates with connecting stiffeners and has been designed to support various components such as control plug, pumps and heat exchangers entering into the main vessel of the reactor. The net static load acting on it is about 3800t under normal condition and about 5000t under design basis earthquake. Experiments on 1/12th scaled down model of the roof slab are carried out and test data is compared with the results of numerical simulation by finite element analysis. The numerical as well as experimental investigations carried out on the model demonstrate the robustness of assumptions made for the analysis carried out towards respecting design code limits as well as raise the confidence on the structural integrity of the roof slab.