Preliminary Results of Stainless Steel Impact Bending Tests
Stainless steels are used for the construction of numerous spent nuclear fuel or radioactive material containers that may be subjected to high strains and moderate strain rates during accidental drop events. Mechanical characteristics of these materials under dynamic (impact) loads in the strain rate range of concern are not well documented. However, two previous papers [1, 2] reported on impact tensile testing and analysis results performed at the Idaho National Laboratory using 304L and 316L stainless steel specimens that began the investigation of these characteristics. The goal of the work presented herein is to: (1) add the results of additional tensile impact testing for 304L stainless steel specimens, and (2) show that the application of the strain rate-dependent material curves (determined through that tensile impact testing) to specimens designed to respond in bending during impact loading would yield accurate deformation and strain predictions.