To meet safety requirements for underground storage of high-level nuclear waste, engineered barriers are an integral part of a modern defense-in-depth concept and therefore have to be considered in interaction with the host rock. This study presents preliminary results for the load behavior of a canister made of pressure-less sintered silicon carbide (SSiC), which forms the main retention barrier for the fission products in a new multi-layer waste package design denominated as TRIPLE C. This means a three-fold enclosure strategy, spreading the functionalities to three different ceramic barriers: first the porous potting compound surrounding each single fuel rod in the container, second the solid container wall of SSiC and third the over-pack of carbon concrete. Besides all the advantages a potential drawback of ceramics in general is their brittleness. Therefore, the behavior of SSiC structural components under static and dynamic loading has to be investigated. First results for a small model canister indicate that static loading will not create any relevant damage, even if stresses are extremely high and highly anisotropic on a canister all-around embedded. First dynamic simulations indicate that, under very unfavorable circumstances, the model canister can experience tensile stresses bigger than its tensile strength. Also, point loading may cause damage to the canister under certain conditions. Based on the performed calculations, the SSiC canister design will be optimized together with the carbon concrete over-pack, so that mechanical damage of main retention barrier can be excluded even under extreme static and dynamic conditions in a final repository.
Corrosion resistance of SSiC (Lay, 1983).
Sintered Silicon Carbide (SSiC) is a material characterized by high corrosion resistance, gas-tightness, extreme long-term stability (Peterson and Dunzik-Gougar, 2011; Mceachern et al., 2012) and high temperature resistance. The exceptional corrosion resistance against several relevant agents is well known and listed in Table 1. Further parameters for SSiC with boron and carbon as sintering aids are given in Table 2.
Figure 1 shows the microstructure of a polished cross section of SSiC. The
surface is relatively smooth with very small micro pores, mostly below 10
Holmquist et al. (1999) reported a static uniaxial compressive strength of
around 3900 MPa of SiC-B (boron as additive) at room temperature. In fact
their test results indicate that the static uniaxial compressive strength
will remain relatively stable from
Material parameter of SSiC (SiCeram GmbH, 2012).
Microstructure of polished cross section of SSiC, SEM.
Fracture surface of SSiC, SEM.
Explosive failure of the SiC-N specimen (12.7 mm in diameter and
25.4 mm in length) subjected to unconfined uniaxial compression (
Triaxial stress-strain curves at different confining pressures
Additional mechanical testing was performed to investigate the strength
characteristics in detail under consideration of the relevant potential
loading situations. Line failure load of SSiC ring is determined by lab
tests, numerical simulations and an analytical solution are also given. A
line load applied to a hollow cylinder can be considered as an extreme, but
also realistic loading scenario. The tests were performed on 5 cm long
specimen with outer and inner diameter of 2.5 and 2 cm, respectively.
Tables 3 and 4 give information of constitutive parameters for matrix and
interfaces. For comparison, lab test and numerical simulation results are
plotted in Fig. 5. The sharp decrease in load implies this material is very
brittle and generates almost no plastic strain before failure. Colored lines
No. 1 to 5 show lab test results. The black and orange dashed line represent
the simulation result in form of the force-displacement curve when tensile
strength of SSiC is 150 and 200 MPa, respectively. These simulations verify
in comparison with the lab test results that tensile strength of specimen is
between 150 and 200 MPa. Tables 1 and 2 contain the model parameters for the
simulations. A strain-softening model is applied. Bulk and shear modulus are
set to 200 and 180 GPa, respectively, according to literature (Dandekar,
2002; Holmquist et al., 1999). The cohesion was deduced from a test with
similar material SiC-N and set to 4 GPa (Lee et al., 2005). Figure 6a shows
the onset of tensile failure zone along the inner radius opposite to the
loading line (
Constitutive parameters for matrix.
Constitutive parameters for interfaces.
Lab and numerical simulation results for line load test on hollow
cylinder according to Fig. 6 (loading rate 0.004 mm s
Available analytical solutions can be useful to predict the stress state inside the waste canisters with hollow cylinder shape under simplified boundary conditions, like constant static circumferential pressure or constant static line load.
Sketch to illustrate Lame's solution.
Lame's solution for the hollow cylinder under radial inner and outer
pressure can be used to predict the stress state under hydrostatic
confinement. The inner radius is given by
Lamé solutions is given by Eqs. (1) and (2):
Sketch to illustrate Timoshenko's solution.
Analytical and numerical results for failure load
Under assumption that inner radial pressure
Constitutive parameters for matrix.
Constitutive parameters for interface between canister and foundation.
The stability of SSiC canisters under extreme loading conditions is investigated by several numerical models. Firstly, free fall is considered; secondly, an impact caused by roof fall and thirdly, impact by point loading. The last calculation case considers a highly anisotropic in-situ stress field acting on the canister surface. The simulations were performed using the distinct element code 3DEC (Itasca, 2016).
This simulation considers accident fall from a height of 2 m. The height of 2 m takes into account the actual height of transport vehicles and the design of underground openings. The canister has inner and outer radius of 0.10 and 0.12 m, respectively. The length is 0.5 m. The parameters of SSiC canister, rock mass as well as protection coating are listed in Tables 5 and 6. Viscous boundaries for the foundation and zero damping are applied.
Maximum tensile stress vs. contact stiffness (without coating).
General model set-up.
Simulation results are shown in Fig. 10. Under the mentioned circumstances
and a tensile strength of 150 MPa the canister will locally fail. To avoid
this, either the thickness of the canister wall has to be increased or a
soft coating (protection layer) around the outer surface of the canister is
needed to absorb kinetic energy. For simplicity, an elastic coating with no
damping is assumed. The coating layer has a thickness of 40 mm and is much
softer than SSiC. This results in significant reduced maximum tensile stress
(about 83 MPa) within the canister. It would be even lower considering
plasticity and damping. An interface stiffness of 440 TPa m
Constitutive parameters for matrix.
Grain-scale contact parameters for rock mineral.
Constitutive parameters for interfaces.
Maximum principle stress [Pa] (cuboid rock).
Figure 12 shows the general model set-up. The canister has inner and outer
radius of 0.10 and 0.12 m respectively, and a length of 0.5 m. The falling
rock block (cuboid) has edge length of
It is seen from Fig. 13 that maximum tensile stress induced by a 7.5 kg falling rock block can go up to 112 MPa. For comparison, a pure elastic continuum-based model shows maximum tensile stress is 324 MPa (Fig. 14a), much bigger than the 112 MPa predicted by the discrete element model. Stiffer rocks like granite should induce bigger tensile stress. Under another extreme condition – the rock is a 6.0 kg tetrahedron which has point-line contact with the canister (Fig. 14b) – the maximum tensile stress along inner surface of canister never exceeds 20 MPa, and the tensile stress in the direct contact area reaches only about 33 MPa. The rock tip will break first especially when the rock is less stiff. Anyway, coating is needed.
Geometry of static point load model.
Constitutive parameters for matrix.
Grain-scale contact parameters for stone.
Constitutive parameters for interfaces.
Figure 15 shows the chosen geometry to study the impact of static point load: a
small stone is placed between foundation and SSiC canister, creating a point
load on the SSiC canister. The foundation is fixed vertically and the
canister experiences an additional line load of 10 MPa along the canister
roof. The canister has inner and outer radius of 0.10 and 0.12 m
respectively, and a length of 0.5 m. Tables 10, 11 and 12 show the model
parameters. Grain-scale contact parameters are calibrated and the uniaxial
compressive strength is around 200 MPa. The stone has edge length of
This model assumes that the SSiC canister is protected by a layer of
compacted bentonite (8 cm thick), embedded in the rock mass which is
characterized by a vertical stress component of 10 MPa and a horizontal
principal stress of 30 MPa. The canister has inner and outer radius of 0.10 and 0.12 m respectively, and a length of 0.5 m. Rock mass, bentonite and
canister are elastic. Bentonite will generate swelling pressure of 30 MPa
itself due to water absorption. The selected region is
Figure 18 shows the model set-up. Tables 13 and 14 list parameters for matrix and interface. Figure 18 shows that the canister experiences compressive stress of 279 MPa and tensile stress of about 92 MPa under combined loading from earth and swelling pressure (first and second principle stress 30 MPa, third principle stress 10 MPa, swelling pressure 30 MPa).
Maximum principle stress [Pa].
Model set-up.
SSiC material is brittle but with very high tensile strength (150–200 MPa). First results for a small model canister indicate that static loading will not create any relevant damage on a canister all-around embedded, even if stresses are extremely high and highly anisotropic. Point loading, under very unfavorable conditions, will damage the bare SSiC canister. But once more the canister sustains even a highly anisotropic stress field if all-around embedded as an effective countermeasure. The performed calculations underline the concept that the SSiC canister alone sustains definite loading of the host rock, but should be protected generally by a mechanically robust over-pack preferably made of carbon concrete to complete a final waste package for all types of host rocks (shared and split functionality in TRIPLE C concept; Kerber and Knorr, 2017). To avoid any failure, the procedure of SSiC has to guarantee a certain limit of microdefects.
Constitutive parameters for matrix.
Constitutive parameters for interface.
No data sets were used in this article.
YNZ has provided some ideas for simulation and performed all simulations. HK has provided some ideas for simulation and helped to fix simulation issues. AK and JK have provided the SSiC material for experiment and data relating to physical characterization of SSiC.
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
This article is part of the special issue “European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2018, EGU Division Energy, Resources & Environment (ERE)”. It is a result of the EGU General Assembly 2018, Vienna, Austria, 8–13 April 2018. Edited by: Michael Kühn Reviewed by: two anonymous referees