The development of an aluminum toroidal shell-type impact limiter

The impact limiters on a Type B transportation cask are designed to absorb the impact energy for the 9-meter (30 foot) drop accident conditions without bottoming out in order to limit deceleration loadings on the cask. Toroidal shell-type impact limiters made from stainless steel have been investigated in the past for transportation cask service in Japan and by the General Electric Company. These designs were relatively heavy and quite rigid causing high deceleration loads on the cask. This paper presents the results of an investigation to determine the feasibility of an aluminum Alloy 6061-T6 toroidal shell impact limiter for a Legal Weight Truck (LWT) cask being developed by the Westinghouse Corporation for the US Department of Energy. The incentives for the study were the potential advantages such as a compact configuration, lightweight, durability, and essentially maintenance-free operation