Project Details
Description
The service lifetime extension of existing nuclear power plants (NPPs) necessitate addressing many different issues including the accurate assessment of long-term aging and deterioration of concrete materials. When deterioration appears, destructive and non-destructive evaluation is typically performed to assess the status quo and to use such information to formulate appropriate strategies for repair and/or reconstruction. This requires the assessment of the expected deterioration evolution in time as well as the associated structural safety and serviceability consequences. The overarching goal of this research effort is to formulate and validate a stochastic framework for the prediction of concrete aging and deterioration with specific focus on alkali-silica reaction (ASR) damage. Towards this goal, the objectives of the project are: (1) to formulate a multiscale/multiphysics model for the simulation of ASR deterioration mechanisms in concrete as well as its coupling with temperature and relative humidity variations; (2) to enrich such model with probabilistic representation of material parameters; (3) to develop and use accelerated tests as well as non-destructive evaluation techniques specifically tailored towards the probabilistic parameter identification of the formulated model; (4) to formulate a predictive stochastic framework that incorporates mechanics-based models; random field models; and laboratory/field data; and (5) to validate the overall framework against a reduced scale case study.
Successful completion of the proposed research will have a significant impact on the ability of the national technical community to assess reliability and durability of concrete constructions in NPPs and to estimate the remaining service lifetime. This will contribute towards a better management of NPP maintenance resources, the possible lifetime extension of existing NPP, and better designs of new NPP.
Status | Finished |
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Effective start/end date | 9/30/14 → 8/31/18 |
Funding
- United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC-HQ-60-14-G-0003)
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