The Development of an Aluminum Toroidal Shell-Type Impact Limiter

The impact limiters on a Type B transportation cask are designed toabsorb the impact energy for the 9-meter (30 foot) drop accidentconditions without bottoming out in order to limit decelerationloadings on the cask. Toroidal shell-type impact limiters made fromstainless steel have been investigated in the past for transportationcask service in Japan (Y. Sugita and S. Mochizuki) and by the GeneralElectric Company (R. J. Pomares, et al). These designs wererelatively heavy and quite rigid causing high deceleration loads onthe cask. This paper presents the results of an investigation todetermine the feasibility of an aluminum Alloy 6061-T6 toroidal shellimpact limiter for a Legal Weight Truck (LWT) cask being developed by the Westinghouse Corporation for the United States Department ofEnergy. The incentives for the study were the potential advantages such as a compact configuration, lightweight , durability, andessentially maintenance-free operation.