Computer Simulation of a Transportation Package Impacting Concrete and Soil Targets

This paper compares transportation mockup cask impact test results onto real surfaces with FEA numerical simulation results. The impact test results are from a series of cask impact tests that were conducted by Sandia National Laboratories (Gonzales 1987). The Sandia tests were conducted with a half-scale instrumented cask mockup impacting an essentially unyielding surface, in-situ soil, concrete runways, and concrete highways. The cask numerical simulations with these same surfaces are conducted with ABAQUS/Explicit, Version 5.8, The results are then compared and evaluated to access the viability of using numerical simulation to predict the impact behavior of transportation casks under hypothetical accident conditions.