One-Quarter-Scale Laboratory Crush Tests on Unconfined Waste Cans and a Confined Waste Package in Support of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

Abstract

In 1989 '/s-scale model tests were conducted under quasi-static loading to explore the potential of . laboratory experiments for evaluating computer simulations of the response of waste packages and crushed-salt backfill in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The choice of crushed salt was based on engineering considerations in the late 1980s that are superceded by the current design of the WIPP. One-quarter-scaling was applied to the dimensions of individual waste drums as well as to the distances between the walls of WIPP excavations and the outermost rows and columns of full-scale waste packages.Experiments were performed on single cans and on one confined seven-pack of simulated waste canisters consisting of No. 12 food cans filled with simulated combustible waste. These tests had three specific objectives: (1) Comparison of the load-supporting capabilities and deformation modes of single simulated waste cans with the response of multiple waste packages that were surrounded and confined by dry crushed salt. In this case, multiple waste packages were replaced by one seven-pack of cans that could be accommodated in a laboratory experiment of manageable size. (2) Development of a small-scale experiment that would yield independent measurements to evaluate the predictive capabilities of computer simulations. (3) Generation of experimental measurements for comparison with the results of numerical analyses whose outcome is determined by the combination of geometric and structural system idealizations, boundary conditions, constitutive models, and computer algorithms.Overall, the study confirms that laboratory tests involving a pack of seven cans filled with simulated waste surrounded and confined by crushed-salt backfill (or some other kind of backfill) constitute a viable approach to code validation. Acknowledgement