Abstract
Long-term performance of aging concrete in nuclear power plants (NPPs) requires a careful examination of the physical phenomena taking place in the material. Concrete under high neutron irradiation is subjected to large irreversible deformations as well as mechanical damage, caused by a swelling of the aggregates. However, these results, generally obtained in accelerated conditions in test reactors, cannot be directly applied to NPP irradiated structures, i.e., the biological shield, operating conditions due to difference in time scale and environmental conditions (temperature, humidity). Mesoscale numerical simulations are performed to separate the underlying mechanisms and their interactions. The cement paste creep-damage model accounts for the effect of the loading rate on the apparent damage properties of the material and uses an event-based approach to capture the competition between creep and damage. The model is applied to the simulation of irradiation experiments from the literature and shows a good agreement with the experimental data.
