Publications

In this introductory work, joint compliance is studied in both a numerical and experimental setting. A simple bolted interface is used as the test article and compliance is measured for the joint in both compression and in tension. This simple interface is shown to exhibit a strong non-linearity near the transition from compression to tension (or vice-versa). Modeling issues pertaining to numerically solving for the compliance are addressed. It is shown that the model predictions, in spite of convergence being very sensitive to numerical artifacts of the interface model, are in good agreement with experimentally measured strains and joint compliances. The joint behavior is a mechanical analogy to a diode, i.e., in compression, the joint is very stiff, acting almost as a rigid link, while in tension the joint is relatively soft, acting as a spring.

A procedure is presented for developing the route characterization used to assess the risk for the highway transport of nuclear materials. The types of data needed for a risk assessment and the sources used to provide that data are discussed. An outline of the methods used to get from data source to the route characterization used for risk analysis is presented. The models and methodologies developed for this study were programmed into the ADROIT computer code, which ha become one of Sandia`s principal analysis tools for doing risk assessments for the highway transportation risk for nuclear materials.