Risk due to creep of prestressed concrete at moderate temperature

¹ Université de Toulouse; UPS, INSA; LMDC (Laboratoire Matériaux et Durabilité des Constructions) ; 135, avenue de Rangueil; F-31 077 Toulouse Cedex 04, France
² Institut français des sciences et technologies des transports, de l'aménagement et des réseaux (IFSTTAR), 14-20 Boulevard Newton – Champs-sur-Marne – 77447 Marne-la-Vallée Cedex 2, France

^* Corresponding author: thierry.vidal@univ-tlse3.fr

Abstract

This study is a part of a French national project dealing with the mechanical behaviour of the containment vessel of French Nuclear Power Plants in case of a severe accident. The accident conditions are characterized by the increases of internal pressure, +0.5 MPa, and of temperature, up to 180°C, during two weeks. Heating can induce a strong increase of creep deformations kinetics leading to prestressing losses of concrete. Associated to internal pressure, tensile stress could occur in some areas of the structure and the potential cracking could affect the containment capacity of the vessel. One of the objectives of the project was thus to provide original creep data to develop accurate models, taking into account the coupled effects of temperature, desiccation and damage, and able to predict the behaviour of prestressed concrete structures in such insitu conditions. A wide experimental program consisted of numerous creep tests under various thermo-hydro-mechanical conditions in the values range of the accident. The presented results concern uniaxial compressive and flexural creep tests respectively performed on concrete cylinders and prestressed concrete beams, at 20°C and 40°C without desiccation.