Numerical estimation of errors in drop angle during drop tests of IP-Type metallic transport containers for radioactive materials

For industrial package (IP)-type transport containers for radioactive materials, a free drop test should be conducted under regulatory conditions. Owing to various uncertainties observed during the drop test, errors in drop angles inevitably occur. In IP-type metal transport containers in which the container directly impacts onto a rigid target without any shock absorbing materials, the error in the drop angle due to a slight misalignment makes a significant difference from the ideal drop. In particular, in a vertical drop, the error in the drop angle causes a strong secondary impact. In this paper, a numerical method is proposed to estimate the error in the drop angle occurring during the test. To determine this error, an optimization method accompanying a computational drop analysis is proposed, and a surrogate model is introduced to ensure calculation efficiency. Effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by performing the verification and comparison between the test and the analysis applied with the drop angle error.