TESTING AND ANALYSES TO INVESTIGATE LINER TEARING OF THE 1 6-SCALE REINFORCED-CONCRETE CONTAINMENT BUILDING/

The overpressurization of a 1:6-scale reinforced concrete containment building demonstrated that liner tearing is an important failure mode. A combined experimental and analytical program was developed to deter mine the important parameters that contribute to liner tearing. Three sets of test specimens were designed to investigate the mechanisms imp ortant in causing failure. The tests investigated effects produced by the anchorage system, loading conditions, and transition in thickness from the liner to insert plate. Before testing, the specimens were ana lyzed using two- and three-dimensional finite element models. Based on the analysis, the failure mode and load conditions were predicted. Te st data and posttest examination show mixed agreement with the analyti cal predictions. Many similarities were observed between the response of the liner in the 1:6-scale reinforced concrete containment model an d the response of the test specimens. This work illustrates that the f ailure mechanism can be greatly influenced by details of liner and anc horage system design. Furthermore, it significantly increases the unde rstanding of containment building response under severe conditions.