Effect of Construction Joint on Leakage Resistance of Gas in Reinforced Concrete Pressure Vessels
In the nuclear power plant, the steel or polymer liner plates are adopted to prohibit the inner concrete surface from contacting with gas or liquid materials. If there is an accident, the plate may be damaged, and, in this case, concrete shall have the final responsibility to safety requirements. In this paper, an experimental research was carried out to investigate the effects of construction joint and wet and loading conditions on the permeability of concrete. The test results showed that, under a construction joint in the wet condition, leakage of gas pressure has been started from 1 kg/cm2. However, when there are no construction joints, it is initiated from 2 kg/cm2. In addition, under the air dried and unloading condition, regardless of with or without the presence of the construction joint, since the gas passage that exist in concrete is constant, leakage has a constant tendency to increase. Finally, under the loading condition, as described in Reference 1, since leakage is inversely proportional to the thickness of the wall, and, considering the wall thickness of the actual plant, it is found that there will not be no problem in the sealing of the gas.