Refined Modeling of Projectile Impact Onto Submerged Structure

Structural integrity of spent fuel racks is a critical safety issue in nuclear power stations. The standard approach of evaluating the effects of an impact projectile on a submerged structure, which constitute the start point of the current study, involves three main steps: determination of the conditions just prior to the impact (that are considered as initial conditions for the analysis), setting the mechanism of transferring energy from the projectile to the target structure, and determining how that energy is absorbed by the impacted structure. Usually, the dynamics of the projectile are ideally considered, the influence of the fluid presence is restricted to the determination of the impact velocity and strain rate dependency is limited to choosing a true stress vs. strain curve corresponding to some constant strain rate. Starting from the standard engineering approach, the authors have refined the model considering more realistic dynamics of the projectile, extending the influence of the fluid to the entire analysis and using a more accurate strain rate dependant material behavior. Explicit Finite Element analyses are used in order to incorporate the desired effects.