Nondestructive evaluation of concrete specimens representative of nuclear power plants containing known defects

N. Dianne Bull Ezell, Austin Albright, Dan Floyd, Lev Khazanovich

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

Abstract

Many known defects that develop in concrete over time may threaten the safety and security of the infrastructure in nuclear power plants (NPPs). These defects also exist in other concrete infrastructures, but the harsher nuclear environment adds significant difficulty to their detection and correction. To monitor the structural health of a concrete facility, coring and other destructive testing methods are typically employed, but this is not the ideal solution for NPP concrete infrastructure. Developing a reliable nondestructive evaluation (NDE) method to evaluate the damage in these structures will greatly improve the long-term operation and safety of NPPs. The University of Tennessee, in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, developed a large-scale experiment to study one known defect due to the reaction between hydroxyl ions of the alkalis in cement paste and the siliceous minerals present in some aggregates known as alkali-silica reactions (ASRs). Alkali-silica gel forms and swells due to its hygroscopic characteristic, causing cracking and material failure. This paper discusses the NDE measurements performed on the large concrete specimens and the reconstructed images from these measurements.

Original languageEnglish
Pages658-662
Number of pages5
StatePublished - 2019
Event19th International Conference on Environmental Degradation of Materials in Nuclear Power Systems - Water Reactors, EnvDeg 2019 - Boston, United States
Duration: Aug 18 2019Aug 22 2019

Conference

Conference19th International Conference on Environmental Degradation of Materials in Nuclear Power Systems - Water Reactors, EnvDeg 2019
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityBoston
Period08/18/1908/22/19

Funding

This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).

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