Authors:

Peter Hays

Date Created:

Not specified

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About Paper:

Steel-Concrete Composite (SC) has demonstrated significantly improved performance over standard reinforced concrete (RC) in terms of strength, construction cost and time and ductility. For these reasons, SC design is becoming increasingly employed in the Containment Internal Structures (CIS) of nuclear reactors. However, due to the more recent appearance of SC design in these applications and others, certain behaviors of SC structures have not been fully analyzed. In particular, there exists an incomplete understanding of SC L- joint connections under blast loading conditions. The purpose of this research is to further characterize the effect of SC reinforcement in the joint region of SC L-joint connections on joint strength during a blast event. To do so, large-scale testing of L-joint specimens subjected to a bending moment was conducted. The specimens experienced stresses and strains due to loading, which were recorded at different areas along with the maximum yield strength of the specimen and its failure mode. Finite element modeling was conducted along with a mechanical analysis to validate the results of the experiment. It was found that the inclusion of steel- plate reinforcement in the joint region of an SC structure can prevent joint shear failure before inelastic deformation of the wall connections occurs through the formation of plastic hinges. These results show that SC L-joint connections can endure conditions typical of blast loading within a CIS. This experiment is part of an ongoing project at Bowen Laboratory to study the behavior of SC design and document its performance for use in nuclear facilities.

Source:

Purdue University / 2023

Topics:

No topics listed

Co-authors:

Peter Hays