Failure Behavior and Vulnerability of Containment Structures Subjected to Overpressure Loads Considering Different Failure Criteria

Abstract

This paper investigates the failure behavior and vulnerability of the containment structure (CS) under internal pressure according to different functional and structural failure criteria. Through nonlinear numerical analysis, the deformation of the structure, degree of concrete cracking, and the distribution of stresses and strains in the prestressing tendons and steel liner under different failure criteria are compared. Combined with probabilistic analysis methods, the vulnerability curves, HCLPF capacities, and total failure probabilities of CS determined by different failure criteria are systematically discussed. Results show that there are some differences in the failure behavior and pressure capacity of CS under different failure criteria for both functional and structural failure modes. Under the same failure mode, the variability of the pressure capacities obtained using different criteria is relatively small. Generally, the total failure probabilities of CS subjected to overpressure loads determined by different failure criteria exhibit significant differences. If it is considered that all the investigated failure criteria have a certain ability to predict containment failure, the probabilistic assessment results derived from the functional failure criterion based on the fracture strain of steel liners and the structural failure criterion based on the global strain are deemed to be more reasonable.

Keywords

• containment structure
• overpressure loads
• failure criteria
• pressure capacity
• vulnerability
• probabilistic assessment