Assessment of the response of reinforced concrete structural members to aircraft crash impact loading

Abstract For the containments of nuclear power plants in the F.R. Germany, the loading caused by a striking military aircraft decisively influences their design. The low probability of occurrence of this loading can be associated with an increase of consequences and reduced safety margins used in the design of structures. This requires that the actual response of structures to extreme loads has to be predicted with a higher degree of confidence than is typically the case with conventional structures. The adequacy of the computer-oriented mechanical-mathematical methods and the associated computer-codes used in the design of nuclear power plants can only be verified by comparing results from both, analytical and experimental studies. After having confirmed the adequacy of the analytical tools, a probabilistic risk analysis can be sufficiently performed. In this paper, a series of tests is described which have been performed with the aim to improve the mechanical and physical modelling of RC-structures. Furthermore, a case study is presented to evolve a feeling for the safety margins which are implicitely included in the deterministic design calculation.