Irradiated Effect on Shear-Moment Interaction of Reinforced Concrete Slab

Several deleterious mechanisms include chronic high-temperature exposure, freeze-thaw, and chemical attack and have been reviewed extensively in the literature. On the other hand, the effect of irradiation on RC needs further investigations for the long-term operation of existing NPPs. In this regard, the RC biological shield structure is located in closest proximity to a reactor core and expected to see the highest levels of irradiation over the lifetime. The biological shield structure may undergo a large lateral load from earthquake and become thicker for a suitable shielding. Although the bending strength is easily predictable with the altering steel properties, the more complete behaviors should be studied to see if the promised performance is achievable. Given this, in this study, the shear-moment (VM) interaction of a typical one-way slab representing the biological shield structure is investigated with incremental neutron irradiation. The effect of radiation on the behavior of one-way slab is presented by the shear and moment capacity interaction diagram. The results suggest that the yield strength increase of the longitudinal reinforcement barely affects the shear strength but it increases the bending strength significantly. This may be misleading, however, as the structural capacity to observe the energy from environmental loadings such as earthquake would be actually reducing