Bond behavior between reinforcing steel and concrete under multiaxial loading conditions in concrete containments

Important elements of the safety equipment of nuclear power plants are reinforced and prestressed concrete containments, which generally have been used as protective cover in pressurized-water and boiling-water reactors. For these structures, the leakage rate of hazardous products has to be limited to a maximum allowable rate. Therefore, the verification of integrity and leak tightness of containment structures is of high priority. In this study the deformation behavior of a modern prestressed concrete containment under increasing internal pressure was tested by means of a 1:4 scale model in the Sandia National Laboratories in the USA