Behavior of steel plate reinforced concrete modular walls subjected to combined thermal and mechanical loads
Abstract
This thesis investigates the behavior of steel plate reinforced concrete (SC) walls of nuclear power plant steam generator compartments subjected to simultaneous combination of thermal and mechanical loads. Two different types of wall designs were studied and compared. These included: (1) a conventional design that is currently in use in industry, and (2) an alternative Bechtel proprietary design. The conventional design consisted of a steel/concrete/steel sandwich with composite action developed with shear studs. The Bechtel proprietary design replaced the shear studs with pre-tensioned rods that provided composite action and acted as form ties during concrete casting. The experimental program was designed to determine the thermal and structural behavior of beam segments of steam generator compartment walls subjected to a postulated plant accident consisting of: (1) an approximate uniform fluid/gas pressure of 10 psi, and (2) heating of the interior surface to 300º F for a two hour duration. The beam specimens represented one-way sub-section strips from the corresponding wall modules. Two full-scale beam specimens of each wall design were tested. The beam specimens were subjected to structural loading using a four-point loading configuration, which served to replicate the effects of a 10 psi uniform pressure. The loaded specimens were heated to 300º F using electric radiant heaters. After two hours of heating, the applied structural loading was increased to 360% of the initial value. The experimental results indicate that both types of wall designs, namely the conventional and Bechtel proprietary designs demonstrated satisfactory performance with minimal loss of stiffness and no evidence of ultimate failure under the initial load or the subsequent overload. Fiber-based analytical models were developed and validated to predict the behavior of the beam specimens. The validated models were used to develop simple design equations for calculating the: (1) stiffness, (2) strength, and (3) stresses produced in SC beam specimens with different boundary conditions subjected to combined thermal and mechanical loading.
Degree
M.S.C.E.
Advisors
Varma, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Architectural|Civil engineering
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