Mechanical Properties Used for the Qualification of Transport Casks: Prototype Development and Extension to Serial Production*

A thorough understanding of the mechanical behavior of material in a specific cask is required to properly analyze the structural response of the cask. An appropriate way to establish this understanding is through laboratory testing of cask material. The laboratory testing that was done to support the MOSAIK Drop Test Program is summarized as an example of how mechanical properties can be mapped for a prototype cask. The broad range of measured properties allows the critical aspects of mechanical behavior to be understood. This is necessary for the proper application of fracture mechanics, and focuses on fracture toughness as the inherent materials property which quantifies the fracture resistance of a material. The general fracture mechanics approach and its application to specific cask designs are described elsewhere (Salzbrenner et al. 1990, Sorenson et al. 1992a, Sorenson et al. 1992b). The understanding established by a thorough mapping of the mechanical properties is necessary to apply fracture mechanics to a particular prototype, but it is not sufficient for qualifying serially produced casks. The mechanical behavior of a prototype must be correctly associated with parameters which can be measured on production casks. Since the production casks cannot be destructively tested, measurements are commonly made on sub-size specimens. This may prevent direct measurement of valid design properties. An additional database may then be required to establish the correlation between sub-size specimen measurements and valid design properties. This is illustrated by outlining the additional testing which would be necessary to allow the successful verification of the MOSAIK Drop Test Program to be extended from the prototype to serially produced casks.