EXPERIMENTS TO EVALUATE BEHAVIOR OF CONTAINMENT PIPING BELLOWS UNDER SEVERE ACCIDENT CONDITIONS

Bellows are an integral part of the containment pressure boundary in n uclear power plants. They are used at piping penetrations to allow rel ative movement between piping and the containment wall. In a severe ac cident they may be subjected to high pressure and temperature and a co mbination of axial and lateral deflections. A test program to determin e the leak-tight capacity of containment penetration bellows is being conducted at Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM. Several di fferent bellows geometries representative of actual containment bellow s are being subjected to extreme deflections along with pressure and t emperature loads. The bellows geometries and loading conditions are de scribed along with the testing apparatus and procedures. A total of 13 tests have been conducted. The tests showed that bellows are capable of withstanding relatively large deformations up to or near the point of full compression before developing leakage. The test data are prese nted and discussed.