Structure Mechanics Simulation of Phenomena During High Energetic Impact

Aircraft impact on safety related structures of nuclear power plants, in spite of its low probability, has been for a long time recognized as a relevant loading case, especially when designing and building plants in areas with heavy air traffic. The damage of barrier walls is affected by many factors like the mass, velocity, rigidity, material and construction of the missile but also the properties of the barrier wall, dimensions, geometry, curved or flat, support conditions and material properties of concrete and reinforcement. Impact tests with soft missiles can give valuable information concerning the missile breaking mode, the behaviour of contained fluid and the response of concrete slabs. Numerical methods can be used with enhanced confidence in real impact analyses if they are validated by calculations on experiments. The paper includes an overview about experimental studies in the two test facilities at VTT, Finland and MPA Karlsruhe as well as numerical investigations performed by VTT and GRS on the simulation of impact tests.