Nuclear Packaging Internship Final Report

Abstract

The goal of this internship is for the student to become proficient in modeling the stress and deformation of mechanical structures in the ABAQUS FEA software. The research specifically performed by the student during the internship concerns measuring the crush strength of honeycomb stainless steel through FEA modeling. The student is working in the nuclear packaging department at the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL). The nuclear packaging department is developing a new package, dubbed 9982, which is a new Type B shipping package being proposed by the DOE Environmental Management program for the safe shipment of small quantities of nuclear materials (e.g. fissile contents). It is being proposed to implement honeycomb stainless steel as an energy absorber in the design for the new Type B nuclear shipping package. However, to properly implement this material, more data must be collected concerning the crush strength of different honeycomb stainless steel structures. The research makes measuring the crush strength of different honeycomb stainless steels through analytical means a viable option. This saves time and money as opposed to performing real drop tests and can verify the material’s performance as an impact energy absorber.