A probabilistic methodology is proposed to assess the design of a composite liner which is used to restore the air tightness of concrete inner containment vessels of French 1300 MWe nuclear power units. The liner is partially designed by predicting the "tensile stress area" of the inner vessel under pressure tests carried on at different ages. These tensile stresses indeed could create or open cracks which could degrade the air tightness of the vessel. In the proposed methodology, the probability that tensile stresses appear outside the region covered by the liner is computed accounting for the variability of the design parameters (material properties of concrete and pre-stressing cables). The paper presents the general methodology and details the finite element reliability approach developed to evaluate this probability.
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