Simulation of the Prestress in a Representative Structural Volume of a French 1450 Mwe Containment Building

The behavior of a Representative Structural Volume for containment buildings of 1450 MWe nuclear power plants is studied. Computations give information about the global behavior of the structure (deformation, evolution of the mechanical behavior as a function of the internal pressure during the simulation), about the failure mode and finally underline the role of the prestress. The ducts may be responsible, well above the dimensioning pressure (hypothetic loading), for local effects that have to be studied carefully. Two modeling are compared for the cables, using either bar or three dimensional elements. The impact on the damage distribution is analyzed.