Stresses in water filled concrete pools within nuclear facilities subjected to seismic loads

• This paper presents a study on water filled pools within nuclear facilities subjected to seismic loads. The type of structure studied is an elevated rectangular concrete tank, supported by the reactor containment, which is a high cylindrical concrete structure. Seismic analysis is performed using finite element models, accounting for fluid-structure interaction (FSI) between the water and the concrete structure. The stresses in a concrete pool are calculated, also investigating the changes in stresses as additional cross-walls are added. The effects from earthquakes dominated by low and high frequencies are evaluated, representative for conditions at the West coast of North America and Northern Europe, respectively. It is shown that the coupled fluid-structure systems have more significant modes in the high frequency range compared to the models without water, that is, for frequencies at which the Northern European type earthquake has significant energy compared to the Western North American earthquake. The seismic analyses show that the relative increase of hydrodynamic pressure is higher when the outer walls of the pool are stiffened due to the inclusion of additional cross-walls. With the inclusion of additional cross-walls, modes with lower natural frequencies, although still relatively high, become more important for the hydrodynamic pressure response. Leading to a higher stress response in the outer walls of the pool for models including the additional cross-walls compared to models without cross-walls. The study indicates that the effect from fluid-structure interaction is of great importance also for seismic loads with relatively high-frequency content.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Samhällsbyggnadsteknik -- Infrastrukturteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Civil Engineering -- Infrastructure Engineering (hsv//eng)

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