Abstract
The modeling of the viscoelastic stress evolution and specific volume relaxation of a bulky glass cast is presented in this article and is applied to the experimental cooling process of an inactive nuclear waste vitrification process. The concerned borosilicate glass is solidified and cooled down to ambient temperature in a stainless steel canister, and the thermomechanical response of the package is simulated. There exists a deviant compression of the liquid core due to the large glass package compared to standard tempered glass plates. The stress load development of the glass cast is finally studied for different thermal load scenarios, where the cooling process parameters or the final cooldown rates were changed, and we found a great influence of the studied cooldown rates on the maximum stress build-up at ambient temperature.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 81-96 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Mechanics of Time-Dependent Materials |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 2014 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
Acknowledgements The authors wish to acknowledge the CEA (LCLT) for its financial support as well as providing the experimental data. The ANDRA (French National Radioactive Waste Management Agency) and AREVA NC are also gratefully acknowledged for supporting this study. Finally, thanks are due to V. Do-quet for fruitful discussions (Laboratoire de Mécanique des Solides, CNRS–École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives |
Keywords
- Cooling process
- FEM simulation
- Nuclear glass cast
- Structural relaxation
- Viscoelasticity