ASME STP-NU-098

Nuclear power plants serve as a reliable source of energy around the globe, but construction of new concrete containments in the US has been deterred by schedule delays and cost overruns. This project investigates the codification of state-of-the-art materials such as ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) and prestressing tendons with greased and sheathed strand tendons (GSS tendons) to develop a novel concrete containment vessel design that may meet contemporary demands. This report is largely comprised of three sections. Section 1 proposes UHPC constitutive models and acceptance criteria in line with the design philosophies of both ASME BPVC III-2 (Joint ACI-ASME Committee 359, 2023, herein referred to as the ASME Code) [1] and the FHWA Guideline for UHPC (Graybeal and El-Helou, 2023, herein referred to as the FHWA Guideline) [2]. Section 2 presents experimental research on the compressive creep of UHPC conducted by Kansas State University, exploring how the inclusion of steel fiber affects the time-dependent deformation properties of UHPC under various stress levels. Section 3 analyzes GSS tendon implementation in containment design, focusing on reduced friction losses and increased duct size requirements.