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Bird impact on aircraft
structures |
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 Principia
has been a partner in the European Project CRAHVI
(CRAshworthiness for High Velocity Impact). The goals of the
project were the development and validation of numerical tools,
as required for reducing the costs and duration of the design
phase, as well as the introduction of new composite materials,
all in relation with the effects of impacts from birds and other
foreign bodies against the aircraft.
 Principia's
contribution to the project started with the development and
calibration of bird models, able to represent accurately their
dynamic behaviour in this type of impacts. This task was followed
by numerical simulation of impacts of various objects against
the tailplane of the Airbus 340-600 aircraft.
The following figures show some deformation sequences. The first
one corresponds to a bird imacting a rigid plane, while the
other presents the deformations of the tailplane during bird
impact. |
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Fuel element drops
on storage racks |
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The storage racks for the spent fuel
of a nuclear power plant must fulfil a number of requirements
in relation with a long series of both operational and accidental
loads. The latter include the drop of fuel elements and equipment
onto the rack. Principia has carried out this type of analyses
for nuclear plants in various countries.
As a consequence of the postulated drops, the rack must not
allow damage to be caused to fuel elements other than the
one sustaining the drop; nor can the rack deform to a point
that might threaten the criticality of the system.
The figures present some results of the deformations, large
but within the acceptable limits, caused in a storage rack
by such accidents. In the first figure, the impact was assumed
to take place at a corner between neighbouring cells, while
the second is an impact on the centre of the upper edge of
a cell wall. |
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Impact of casks for spent
fuel and radioactive sources |
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 The
design of casks for transport and storage of spent nuclear fuel
and other radioactive sources must ensure their integrity in
the course of a number of hypothetical accidents. The specific
requirements vary with the function of the container and the
type of contents, but they usually include 9 m drops, impacts
with other bodies, fire and immersion.
Principia has carried out these analyses in support of the
design of several casks, including the DPT cask for transport
and storage of the spent fuel from Trillo NPP. Similar analyses
have been permormed for transport and storage containers for
radioactive sources from industry, hospitals and research.
As an example, the figures show some of the calculated deformations
following 9 m drops of a spent fuel cask and a container for
other smaller radioactive sources. |
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