DroppedLoadAssessmentinNuclearIndustry

BritishEnergy
CivilandNuclearEngineering,ProcessIndustry,HealthandWell Being

INTRODUCTION British Energy (BE) is part of EDF Energy. The combinedenterpriseistheUKsbiggestproducer of electricity and together provides power to a quarter of the countrys population. It operates a number of nuclear power stations, coal and gas power stations, as well as combined heat and powerplantsandwindfarms. SCENARIO As a civil engineer in the Civil Design Group of British Energy (BE), you are part of a team working with multiple engineering disciplines including a variety of design reviews, structural assessments and onsite inspections. The structural assessment involves the analysis of nuclear safety related civil structures for all BE nuclearpowerstations.Thetopicwearegoingto discussinthisexemplarisdroppedloadwhich isoneofthemostimportantaspectsintheimpact assessmentactivities. IMPORTANCEOFTHEEXEMPLAR In the nuclear power stations during normal station operation and maintenance procedures, there is a demand to move heavy loads using cranes and lifting beams. During load handling, thereisapotentialfortheloadbeingcarriedtobe dropped. Dropped objects generally have relativelyhighvelocitieswhichcancauseagreat damageto the impacted structure. However, this damage is normally very local and includes yielding of materials, local buckling and, in some cases, local failure or penetration. An incident of thisnaturemightdirectlyorindirectlycauseafault which could lead to an increased risk of a radiologicalhazard. Therefore, it is very significant to perform such structuralintegrityassessmentofdroppedload.A periodic safety review is needed to make sure thatalltheliftingequipmentsworkproperlyunder thenormsofhealthandsafety. MATHEMATICALMODEL When an object impacts on a target with a velocity, the velocity of the impactor is changed significantly within a very short period of time. Since the impactor is released from a height, it also has a positive acceleration (gravitational acceleration in case ofafreelyfallingobjectand forcedaccelerationincaseofanobjectwithsome initial velocity). As a result of this impact, the positive acceleration changes to a very large negative acceleration. During this process, a significantly high compressive force is produced

at the interface of the impactor and the target which can cause damage to the target and/or impactor depending on its strength. We have to make sure that these forces generated at the interface are within the desired limit in order to reducethedamagecausedduetoimpact. Assuming the weight of the impactor is W , this inertiaforce, F,canbethencalculatedasfollow:

F=

W a (1) g

where a istheaccelerationoftheimpactand g is gravitational acceleration. Due to this inertia force, a dynamic stress and dynamic strain are producedinthetargetandtheimpactor.Intheory, weshouldbeabletocalculatetheseforcesusing equation (1). But the velocity change during the impact is so short in time that the negative acceleration is impossible to be measured accurately consequently the dynamic stress and strainareunlikelytobecalculatedonthebasisof inertialforce(equation1). Furthermore, an engineer is more interested in calculating the maximum dynamic stress and strain produced in the impacted body(s) so that hecancompareitwiththesetsafetynorms. To answer such an important question raised in nuclear industry, we will now discuss the energy conservationmethodwhichprovidesasufficiently accurate approximation for these two important engineeringvariables. In order to simplify the mathematical model, we willmakesomeassumptionsasfollows: 1. the impactor is a rigid body (i.e. its deformation is significantly smaller in comparisontothattakingplaceinthetarget) 2. the mass of the targeted body is neglected (i.e. its mass is much smaller than the impactorsmass) 3. during impact, all kinetic energy is converted intostrainenergy(otherenergylossesareso smallascanbeneglected) For most engineering problems, the targeted structure can be regarded as an elastic system, like a springmass system, where theforce F is linearlyrelatedtothedeformation y inthetarget. Itcanbeshownbythe followingequation: F = ky (2)

where k represents the spring elastic constant. This equation (2) is also known as Hookes Law ofElasticity. Considerthefollowingsimplifiedsystemshownin Figure1.

Umax =

1 F yd (8) d 2

This can quickly be visualised in the following figure2:

Figure1:Thesimplifiedsystem

Figure2:GraphicalillustrationofElasticStrainEnergy

Here,animpactor(orload)ofweight W isbeing dropped on an elastic target from a height h causingadynamicimpactforce F anddynamic d deformation y .Therefore,fromequation(2),we d canwrite: Fd = ky (3) d Experiments show that for such a system (linear elastic system) under consideration, the elastic constant k willremainsameunderstaticloading circumstancesaswell,i.e.:

Substitutingthevalueof F fromequation(5),we d get

U max = W yd2 (9) 2 s y

Finally, substituting equation (7) and (9) into equation(6),wehave

W (h+ yd )=

1W 2 yd (10) 2 ys

Byrearrangingtheaboveequation,weget:

W = kys (4)
where ys represents the static deformation causedbythestaticloadingW . Substitutingthisinequation(3),weget:
Fd = W y (5) d y s

yd2 - 2 syd - 2 s = 0 (11) y hy

whichisaquadraticequationofthetype

ax2 + bx+ c = 0 (12)

whosesolutionisgivenby
2 - b b - 4 ac (13) 2 a

x =

According to the energy conservation, all kinetic energy (E ) of the impactor is converted into max elasticstrainenergy(U ): max E max = U max (6) Since the impact is caused by a freelydropped object on the target, the kinetic energy of the impactorinnothingbutitsinitialpotentialenergy. Therefore: E max = W(h+ yd ) (7) For any system under loading, the elastic strain energyisequaltohalfoftheproductoftheforce andthecorrespondingdeformation.Thus,incase ofdynamicloading,wehave:

On comparing equation (11) and (12), we can writethesolutionofequation(11)asfollows:

y = d - (- 2 s) y

(- 2ys)2 - 4 1 (- 2hys)
2 1

Onsimplification,weget:

yd = ys ys2 + 2 s (14) hy
In the current scenario, we have ys > 0 and

h> 0 . Also, we are interested in the maximum dynamic y .Hence,consideringonlythepositive d

sign,wesuccessivelyget:

yd = ys + ys2 + 2 s ,or hy
2 h y = y 1+ 1+ ,or d s y s

y d = mys (15)
where
2 h m = 1 + 1+ (16) y s

Oncethemaximumdynamicstressiscalculated, itispossibletomakeanengineeringdecisionfor anyproblemunderconsideration,bycomparingit withtheallowablestress [s ] .Inordertomaintain the health and safety at the nuclear site, we at least must have the maximum dynamic stress to belessthanorequaltotheallowablestress,i.e.:

s dmax [s ] (20)
EXTENSIONACTIVITY 1: Drawagraphusingaspreadsheettoillustratethe relationshipbetween m and h .Commentonyour findingsfromthisgraph. EXTENSIONACTIVITY 2: Iftheimpactorisassumedtobeanelasticbody, howwillitaffectthedynamicfactor m ?Whether itwillbehigherorlessthanthatincaseofarigid impactor? What will happen if h is significantly greaterthan ys? WHERETOFINDMORE 1. Basic Engineering Mathematics, John Bird, 2007,publishedbyElsevierLtd. 2. Engineering Mathematics, Fifth Edition, John Bird,2007,publishedbyElsevierLtd. 3. Strength of Materials S Timoshenko, 1976, published by Robert E. Krieger Publishing Company.INC.

whichisknownasdynamicfactor. Substitutingequation(15)inequation(5),weget: F = mW (17) d For the case we are interested as illustrated in Figure 1, the stress ( s ) can be expressed as applied force ( F) divided by the cross section area( A ),

s =

F (18) A

Hence, we have s s = W A and s d = Fd A , s d where subscripts s and d represent the static and dynamic case, respectively. Furthermore, it is due to the fact that the change of the cross section is relatively small, the dynamic stress (s d ), therefore, can be directly expressed as a function of dynamic factor ( m ) and static stress (s s ):

s d = ms s (19)
The static stress should be easily obtained from s s = W A and the dynamic factor from s equations4and16.

JiansongGuo,(PhD,CEng,MINucE,MIMA),BritishEnergy Jiansong obtained his PhD at Sheffield University, major on civil and structural engineering.HehasworkedintheUKindustryforabout8yearsafteranumberof yearsuniversitylecturingandresearch.HeisCharteredEngineerandamember of The Institute of Nuclear Engineer, and Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. Hesays: Mathematical models can be applied as an effective and efficient tool in engineeringpractice.Itisessentialforaprofessionalengineertopossessagood mathematicalgrounding.

INFORMATIONFORTEACHERS Theteachersshouldhavesomeknowledgeof springmasssystem,Hookeslaw dynamicandstaticstressandstrain solvingquadraticequations plottinggraphsofquadraticfunctions TOPICSCOVEREDFROMMATHEMATICSFORENGINEERING Topic1:MathematicalModelsinEngineering Topic4:Functions LEARNINGOUTCOMES LO01:Understandtheideaofmathematicalmodelling LO04:Understandthemathematicalstructureofarangeoffunctionsandbefamiliarwiththeirgraphs LO09:Constructrigorousmathematicalargumentsandproofsinengineeringcontext LO10:Comprehendtranslationsofcommonrealisticengineeringcontextsintomathematics ASSESSMENTCRITERIA AC1.1:Stateassumptionsmadeinestablishingaspecificmathematicalmodel AC1.2:Describeandusethemodellingcycle AC4.1:Identifyanddescribefunctionsandtheirgraphs AC4.2:Analyse functionsrepresentedbypolynomialequations AC9.1:Useprecisestatements,logicaldeductionandinference AC9.2:Manipulatemathematicalexpressions AC9.3:Constructextendedargumentstohandlesubstantialproblems AC10.1:Readcriticallyandcomprehendlongermathematicalargumentsorexamplesofapplications LINKSTOOTHERUNITSOFTHEADVANCEDDIPLOMAINENGINEERING Unit1:InvestigatingEngineeringBusinessandtheEnvironment Unit4:InstrumentationandControlEngineering Unit5:MaintainingEngineeringPlant,EquipmentandSystems Unit6:InvestigatingModernManufacturingTechniquesusedinEngineering Unit7:InnovativeDesignandEnterprise Unit8:MathematicalTechniquesandApplicationsforEngineers Unit9:PrinciplesandApplicationofEngineeringScience ANSWERSTOEXTENSIONACTIVITIES EA1:Useequation(16). EA2:Considerequation(16)againtoanswerthisquestion.