Review Impact stress reduction by shell splitting in cask for transporting radioactive material Kuldeep Sharma a,⇑ , Anirban Guha a , Dnyanesh N. Pawaskar a , R.K. Singh b a Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India b Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India article info Article history: Received 15 March 2014 Received in revised form 12 December 2014 Accepted 28 January 2015 Available online 13 February 2015 Keywords: Multi-layer section Energy absorption Strain reduction Impact Split shell abstract Casks designed for transporting radioactive material are mandated to withstand drop from specific heights on hard ground. The maximum internal stress in the shell of the cask after such an impact needs to be as low as possible to ensure safety of the material being transported. This paper investigates the concept of splitting the shell of the radioactive transport container into multiple layers to reduce these stresses after impact. Different geometrical configurations which are likely to be encountered while designing such containers have been studied through plane 2D and 3D finite element analysis and the efficacy of this idea has been explored on each of them. Considerable reduction of stress has been reported and an explanation based on elastic deformation of layered beams has been suggested. Simula- tions on a cask with the currently prevalent design also show the benefit of implementing this idea. Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 112 2. Shell splitting ........................................................................................................ 112 3. Different objects used for analysis ....................................................................................... 113 4. Finite element model for analysis ........................................................................................ 113 5. Impact behaviour of solids without shell splitting........................................................................... 115 5.1. Impact behaviour of cylinder with axis horizontal ..................................................................... 115 5.2. Impact behaviour of square prism with axis horizontal ................................................................. 116 5.3. Impact behaviour of sphere ....................................................................................... 117 5.4. Impact behaviour of cone with axis vertical .......................................................................... 117 6. Impact behaviour of solids with shell splitting ............................................................................. 117 6.1. Impact of cylinder with split shell .................................................................................. 117 6.2. Impact of square prism, sphere and cone with split shell ............................................................... 118 7. Summary of results ................................................................................................... 119 8. Observation and comments ............................................................................................. 120 8.1. Deformation, stress and strain ..................................................................................... 120 8.2. Multiple splitting of shell ......................................................................................... 121 8.3. Analogy with simply supported beam ............................................................................... 121 9. Shell splitting of steel lead steel cask subjected to impact .................................................................... 123 9.1. Geometry of cask used for analysis ................................................................................. 123 9.2. Modelling and impact parameters .................................................................................. 123 9.3. Results and discussion ........................................................................................... 123 10. Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 124 References .......................................................................................................... 124 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2015.01.025 0306-4549/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 22 2788 7378; fax: +91 22 2784 0022. E-mail address: kuldeep.brit@gmail.com (K. Sharma). Annals of Nuclear Energy 79 (2015) 111–124 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Annals of Nuclear Energy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/anucene