Packages for the transport of high level radioactive material are designed to withstand severe accidents. Hypothetical severe accident conditions are defined in the IAEA Regulations for the safe transport of radioactive materials. One of these accident conditions is the thermal test, mainly consisting of a 30 minute fully engulfing 800 °C pool fire or an equally severe fire test. The heat fluxes into the package depend substantially on the fire characteristics and the surface temperature of the package. 

Fire tests can be performed at BAM on a propane gas fire test facility. In order to investigate the heat fluxes over a wide range of surface temperatures in this test facility a fire reference package was designed for multiple use. The package represented the outer geometry of a specific transport cask for radioactive waste. The fire reference package is a closed steel sheet cylinder with a wall thickness of 10 mm, a length of 1500 mm and a diameter of 1050 mm. The package was instrumented with thermocouples and filled with heat resistant insulation material.

Three open-air fire tests were performed in a propane gas fire test facility. The flames exposure time period varied slightly for the fire tests. Furthermore, the wind direction as well as the wind velocity were measured and changed between and during the tests. Test stand parameters like wind shield location and propane gas volume flow were chosen constant for the three tests. The locally measured fire reference package steel sheet temperatures were used for the calculation of heat fluxes as function of time and surface temperature. Thermographic measurements were performed during one of the three fire reference tests showing the temperature distribution globally on the package surface. The measured temperatures also allowed the calculation of effective fire characteristics of the propane gas fire as there are the flame temperature, the fire convection coefficient and a radiation exchange coefficient in a first approach. The conducted tests provide an initial picture of fire characteristics of the propane gas fire test facility with the proposed calculation method.


Outcomes of Three Large Scale Fire Reference Tests Conducted in Bam Fire Test Facility

Division / Sponsors: 
Pressure Vessels & Piping (PVP)


Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/PVP/PVP2020/volume/83815

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