Secondary Drop of Spent Fuel Transport Casks

ZHAN Zimin; HOU Chunlin; SHENG Feng; LI Ning; LAN Tianbao

doi:10.19554/j.cnki.1001-3563.2025.23.033

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Packaging Engineering ›› 2025, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (23) : 314-321. DOI: 10.19554/j.cnki.1001-3563.2025.23.033

Equipment Protection

Secondary Drop of Spent Fuel Transport Casks

ZHAN Zimin¹, HOU Chunlin^2,*, SHENG Feng¹, LI Ning¹, LAN Tianbao¹

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Abstract

The work aims to confirm the actual response of spent fuel transport casks during primary/secondary drops under different drop angles, particularly focusing on the effects of secondary drops. An explicit dynamics model was established using ANSYS/LS-DYNA to conduct a comparative study of six different drop orientations: horizontal drop (0°), drops at 15°, 30°, 45°, and 65° (over-center-of-gravity), and vertical drop (90°). Secondary drop analysis was considered, accounting for energy dissipation during the primary landing and subsequent rotational motion leading to a secondary impact peak when the opposite end struck the ground. The simulation results were compared with experimental data. The study showed that at small angles (approximately≤30°), the secondary drop peak was generally higher than the primary drop peak (e.g., at 15°, the overall acceleration secondary peak was higher, and the barrel acceleration peak reached 477 m/s² during the secondary drop). The vertical drop (90°) was the most severe condition for the fuel assembly and the upper lid (fuel assembly acceleration: 574 m/s²; upper lid acceleration: 2 070 m/s²). The bolt stress on the upper lid was the highest at 30° (869 MPa), indicating a potential risk to sealing reliability. The consistency between the simulation and experimental results for a 9 m horizontal drop is verified, particularly in terms of shock absorber deformation patterns. It is recommended that secondary impact analysis be included in cask drop assessments, covering at least three scenarios: small-angle drops (15°/30°), vertical drop (90°), and over-center-of-gravity drop (65°), to account for both the most critical conditions for components and the overall "no secondary drop" boundary. This study provides practical guidance for testing and analytical calculations of spent fuel transport casks.

Key words

spent fuel transport cask / drop angle / finite element analysis (FEA) / secondary impact / most severe conditions (worst-case scenario)

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ZHAN Zimin, HOU Chunlin, SHENG Feng, LI Ning, LAN Tianbao. Secondary Drop of Spent Fuel Transport Casks[J]. Packaging Engineering. 2025, 46(23): 314-321 https://doi.org/10.19554/j.cnki.1001-3563.2025.23.033

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