Monte Carlo Simulations to Determine Failure Temperatures and Pressures for 3013 Outer Can Under Room Fire Conditions

Abstract

One of the current missions of the Savannah River Site (SRS) is to provide storage and disposition of DOE excess plutonium and highly enriched uranium (HEU) materials. Most of the materials to be stored at SRS will be packaged in accordance with DOE-STD-3013. The 3013 containers are removed from the shipping container and stored in racks. There was a concern that the outer 3013 containers could burst during a fire and release the contents in the environment. This paper analyzes the structural integrity of the 3013 outer can under different fire conditions and then determines the limiting fire temperature and its duration for loss of containment. The structural analysis uses a Monte Carlo technique that considers the variance in material strength, material creep properties, failure criteria, and vessel dimensions to calculate the median failure pressures for the different fire temperatures and duration. These failure pressures are compared against the increase in internal pressures as the content temperature rises inside the outer can, yielding failure temperature and duration of the fire conditions.