An experimental test setup for the investigation of the crack behaviour of prestressed concrete containment walls

Among other topics the crack initiation and the leakage through prestressed concrete walls of reactor containments are matters of particular interest for the safety of nuclear facilities. Experimental investigations under different loads which also include the limit state under accidental conditions are the basis for the implementation of these problems in finite element codes. The validity of models that are used in nonlinear calculations has to be verified by comparing their performance with experimental results. In order to determine the capability of simulations to predict the structural behaviour of realistic and representative structural parts these kind of complex tests are indispensable. The PACE 1450 experimental project is an intermediate sized experiment to investigate the behaviour of a curved specimen which is representative for the prestressed containment of a 1450 MWe nuclear power plant. The specimen is loaded by air pressure simulating the internal pressure within the reactor containment under inspection and accidental conditions. The resulting ring tensile stresses of the cylindrical part of the containment are applied externally by eight hydraulic jacks. The initial prestressing of the specimen is realised in such a way that a decreasing of the prestressing force for the purpose of simulating the aging of the structure is possible.