Temperature and thermal stress distributions in concrete primary shields for nuclear reactors

Abstract

The distribution of temperature and thermal stresses arising from the absorption of nuclear radiation in thick annular concrete shields is analysed. Design criteria are developed relating maximum allowable incident energy fluxes to maximum allowable compression or tension stresses. A typical result for a $\text{4}\text{1}\text{2}$ ft thick shield is a maximum allowable indicent energy flux of 85 Btu/hr-ft², resulting in a maximum temperature rise of 95°F in a shield cooled by plant container air on both inner and outer surfaces. The results are virtually independent of the nature of the incident radiation whether medium or high energy gammas, or neutrons.

Stature, a Fortran digital computer code for the study of thermal stresses arising from the absorption of nuclear radiation in both steel and concrete annuli is described. Use of Stature allows detailed calculation of the temperature and stress distributions in a shield within 12 sec when the computation is performed with the IBM 7090 digital computer.