Packing Materials for Heat Producing Payloads

Abstract

Several packing materials are considered for use in shipping containers (packagings) designed for transporting heat producing radioactive materials. The packing material is required to support randomly shaped objects, facilitate heat transfer from the object to the environment, and perform these functions in a variety of accident conditions. Aluminium materials provide the best overall performance of the materials considered in this study. The aluminium materials provide significant heat transfer with modest temperature differences, and are effective in transportation accidents. These materials are easy to handle and pack well around random shaped objects. It is found that enclosing the payload inside of a material with high mass and high thermal conductivity, which is in turn enclosed inside of an insulation layer, the thermal performance of the package is improved for both normal and accidental thermal environments.