TRANSPORTATION OF IRRADIATED FUEL BY TRACTOR-TRAILER: A SIMULATION OF THE VIBRATION ENVIRONMENT.

This paper deals with digital simulation of the vibration environment encountered during normal off-site transportation of nuclear fuel casks by a tractor-trailer system. The road transport cask contains the storage and transportation module stack which holds the irradiated fuel bundles. A mathematical model is used to predict the response of a tractor-trailor/cask/tie-down system to the random input of the road profile when travelling at constant speed. The model allows the flexibilities associated with the cask, tie down, and transport frame to be simulated. A modal data base for the module stack is defined by modal testing and used to simulate its dynamics.