• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.535-542
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• 2015

A reactor containment acts as a final barrier to prevent leakage of radioactive material due to the possible reactor accidents into external environment. Because of the functional importance of the containment building, the SIT(Structural Integrity Test) for containments shall be performed to evaluate the structural acceptability and demonstrate the quality of construction. In this paper, numerical analyses are presented, which simulate the results obtained from the SIT for a prestressed concrete(PSC) structure. A sophisticate structural analysis model is developed to simulate the structural behavior during the SIT properly based on various preliminary analysis results considering contact condition among structural elements. From the comparison of the analysis and test results based on the acceptance criteria of ASME CC-6000, it can be concluded that the construction quality of the containment has been well maintained and the acceptable performance of new design features has been verified.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.246-258
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• 2016

The shield building of AP1000 was designed to protect the steel containment vessel of the nuclear reactor. Therefore, the safety and integrity must be ensured during the plant life in any conditions such as an earthquake. The aim of this paper is to study the effect of water in the water tank on the response of the AP1000 shield building when subjected to three-dimensional seismic ground acceleration. The smoothed particle hydrodynamics method (SPH) and finite element method (FEM) coupling method is used to numerically simulate the fluid and structure interaction (FSI) between water in the water tank and the AP1000 shield building. Then the grid convergence of FEM and SPH for the AP1000 shield building is analyzed. Next the modal analysis of the AP1000 shield building with various water levels (WLs) in the water tank is taken. Meanwhile, the pressure due to sloshing and oscillation of the water in the gravity drain water tank is studied. The influences of the height of water in the water tank on the time history of acceleration of the AP1000 shield building are discussed, as well as the distributions of amplification, acceleration, displacement, and stresses of the AP1000 shield building. Research on the relationship between the WLs in the water tank and the response spectrums of the structure are also taken. The results show that the high WL in the water tank can limit the vibration of the AP1000 shield building and can more efficiently dissipate the kinetic energy of the AP1000 shield building by fluid-structure interaction.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.53-59
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• 2013

Several researches have been studied to enhance the seismic performance of nuclear power plants (NPPs) by application of seismic isolation. If a seismic base isolation system is applied to NPPs, seismic performance of nuclear power plants should be reevaluated considering the soil-structure interaction effect. The seismic fragility analysis method has been used as a quantitative seismic safety evaluation method for the NPP structures and equipment. In this study, the seismic performance of an isolated NPP is evaluated by seismic fragility curves considering the soil-structure interaction effect. The designed seismic isolation is introduced to a containment building of Shin-Kori NPP which is KSNP (Korean Standard Nuclear Power Plant), to improve its seismic performance. The seismic analysis is performed considering the soil-structure interaction effect by using the linearized model of seismic isolation with SASSI (System for Analysis of Soil-Structure Interaction) program. Finally, the seismic fragility is evaluated based on soil-isolation-structure interaction analysis results.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.2038-2045
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• 2021

The main objective of this work is to propose a reliable routine standard operation procedures (SOP) for structural health monitoring and diagnosis of nuclear power plants (NPPs). At present, NPPs have monitoring systems that can be used to obtain the quantitative health record of containment (CTMT) buildings through system identification technology. However, because the measurement signals are often interfered with by noise, the identification results may introduce erroneous conclusions if the measured data is directly adopted. Therefore, this paper recommends the SOP for signal screening and the required identification procedures to identify the dynamic characteristics of the CTMT of NPPs. In the SOP, three recommend methods are proposed including the Recursive Least Squares (RLS), the Observer Kalman Filter Identification/Eigensystem Realization Algorithm (OKID/ERA), and the Frequency Response Function (FRF). The identification results can be verified by comparing the results of different methods. Finally, a preliminary CTMT healthy record can be established based on the limited number of earthquake records. It can be served as the quantitative reference to expedite the restart procedure. If the fundamental frequency of the CTMT drops significantly after the Operating Basis Earthquake and Safe Shutdown Earthquake (OBE/SSE), it means that the restart actions suggested by the regulatory guide should be taken in place immediately.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.23-30
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• 2005

From measured results of the neutron fields at some principal places within the containment building in a CE type nuclear power plant in operation, the radiation exposure of a worker to the neutron at there was evaluated and the equivalent dose reflecting new recommendation (ICRP 60) was compared with that doing the old one (ICRP 26). The measured neutron field was also compared with calibration neutron field. From the analysis, the following conclusion was obtained: the average neutron radiation weighting factor according to new recommendation is 2.41 to 2.71 times higher than the old one. The average neutorn radiation weighting factor at the measured place was similar to that at calibration neutron field. The average neutron energy at measured place was between 42 and 158 keV and higher than that of calibration field of 500 keV. So, the measured equivalent dose in nuclear power plant could be overestimated compared to the real equivalent dose.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.149-157
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the significant duration of ground motions on responses of base-isolated nuclear power plants (NPPs). Two sets of ground motion records with short duration (SD) and long duration (LD) motions, scaled to match the target response spectrum, are used to perform time-history analyses. The reactor containment building in the Advanced Power Reactor 1400 (APR1400) NPP is numerically modeled using lumped-mass stick elements in SAP2000. Seismic responses of the base-isolated NPP are monitored in forms of lateral displacements, shear forces, floor response spectra of the containment building, and hysteretic energy of the lead rubber bearing (LRB). Fragility curves for different limit states, which are defined based on the shear deformation of the base isolator, are developed. The numerical results reveal that the average seismic responses of base-isolated NPP under SD and LD motion sets were shown to be mostly identical. For PGA larger than 0.4g, the mean deformation of LRB for LD motions was bigger than that for SD ones due to a higher hysteretic energy of LRB produced in LD shakings. Under LD motions, median parameters of fragility functions for three limit states were reduced by 12% to 15% compared to that due to SD motions. This clearly indicates that it is important to select ground motions with both SD and LD proportionally in the seismic evaluation of NPP structures.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.1669-1680
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• 2019

Seismic safety is considered to be one of the key design objectives of AP1000 nuclear power plant (NPP) in strong earthquakes. Dynamic behavior, damage development and aggravation effect are studied in this study for the three main components of AP1000 NPP, namely reinforced concrete shield building (RCSB), steel vessel containment (SVC) and reinforced concrete auxiliary building (RCAB). Characteristics including nonlinear concrete tension and compressive constitutions with plastic damage are employed to establish the numerical model, which is further validated by existing studies. The author investigates three earthquakes and eight input levels with the maximum magnitude of 2.4 g and the results show that the concrete material of both RCSB and RCAB have suffered serious damage in intense earthquakes. Considering RCAB in the whole NPP, significant damage aggravation effect can be detected, which is mainly concentrated at the upper intersection between RCSB and RCAB. SVC and reinforcing bar demonstrate excellent seismic performance with no obvious damage.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.437-450
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• 2014

In this study, we developed a methodology to determine the reference parameter for an aircraft impact induced risk assessment of nuclear power plant (NPP) using finite element impact analysis of containment building. The target structure used to develop the method of reference parameter selection is one of the typical Korean PWR type containment buildings. We composed a three-dimensional finite element model of the containment building. The concrete damaged plasticity model was used for the concrete material model. The steels in the tendon, rebar, and liner were modeled using the piecewise-linear stress-strain curves. To evaluate the correlations between structural response and each candidate parameter, we developed Riera's aircraft impact force-time history function with respect to the variation of the loading parameters, i.e., impact velocity and mass of the remaining fuel. For each force-time history, the type of aircraft is assumed to be a Boeing 767 model. The variation ranges of the impact velocity and remaining fuel percentage are 50 to 200m/s, and 30 to 90%, respectively. Four parameters, i.e., kinetic energy, total impulse, maximum impulse, and maximum force are proposed for candidates of the reference parameter. The wellness of the correlation between the reference parameter and structural responses was formulated using the coefficient of determination ($R^2$). From the results, we found that the maximum force showed the highest $R^2$ value in most responses in the materials. The simplicity and intuitiveness of the maximum force parameter are also remarkable compared to the other candidate parameters. Therefore, it can be concluded that the maximum force is the most proper candidate for the reference parameter to assess the aircraft impact induced risk of NPPs.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.523-533
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• 2015

A reactor containment acts as a final barrier to prevent leakage of radioactive material due to the possible reactor accidents into external environment. Because of the functional importance of the containment building, the SIT(Structural Integrity Test) for containments shall be performed to evaluate the structural acceptability and demonstrate the quality of construction. An initial numerical analysis was performed to simulate the results obtained from the SIT for a prestressed concrete(PSC) structure. But the analysis results by the initial model expected smaller displacements than the measured ones by 30% at some locations. Accordingly, the research and development to improve the initial model to corelate the measured results of the SIT more properly have been performed. In this paper, the effects of the loss of concrete due to duct for tendons and the contact of duct and tendons in un-bonded tendon system are mainly evaluated based on the preliminary analysis results. In addition, the importances of the proper definition of mesh connectivity among structural elements of concrete, liner plates, rebars and tendons are discussed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.448-456
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• 2016

Severe accident scenarios in nuclear reactors, such as nuclear meltdown, reveal that an extremely hot molten core may fall into the nuclear reactor cavity and seriously affect the safety of the nuclear containment vessel due to the chain reaction caused by the reaction between the molten core and concrete. This paper reports on research focused on the type and amount of vapor produced during the reaction between a high-temperature molten core and concrete, as well as on the erosion rate of concrete and the heat transfer characteristics at its vicinity. This study identifies themass fraction and melting temperature as the most influential properties of concrete necessary for a safety analysis conducted in relation to the thermal interaction between the molten core and the basemat concrete. The types of concrete that are actually used in nuclear reactor cavities were investigated. The $H_2O$ content in concrete required for the computation of the relative amount of gases generated by the chemical reaction of the vapor, the quantity of $CO_2$ necessary for computing the cooling speed of the molten core, and the melting temperature of concrete are evaluated experimentally for the molten core-concrete interaction analysis.