• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.56-61
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• 2016

After Japanese Fukushima nuclear power plant accident caused by the beyond design basis earthquake and tsunami, it has turned to be a major challenge for nuclear safety. IAEA, US NRC and EU have provided new safety design standards for beyond design basis event, Domestic regulatory bodies have also enacted guidances for licensees and applicants on additional methods related to beyond design basis events. This paper describes several evaluation methods for applying to nuclear power plants piping for beyond design basis earthquake. As a results, energy method based on the absorbed energy on nuclear power plant, deterministic method following design code and theory, experience method considering past earthquake data and information and probabilistic methods similar to probabilistic risk assessment were reviewed.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.66-70
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• 2016

Following the 2011 Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident, the IAEA has issued a revised version of the Nuclear Safety Standard for beyond design basis earthquake to consider the core meltdown accident. In Korea, relevant laws and regulations were also revised to consider beyond design basis earthquake to nuclear components. In this paper, CAV, an seismic damage factor that determines the restart of nuclear power plant after operating breakdown earthquake, is proposed for extension to the beyond design basis earthquake. For pipings not satisfying the beyond design basis earthquake condition, several evaluation methods are suggested, such as strain-based evaluation methods, simple nonlinear analysis method and cumulative damage evaluation method.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.19-25
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• 2022

Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) should be designed to have sufficient safety margins and to ensure seismic safety against earthquake that may occur during the plant life time. After the 9.12 Gyeongju earthquake accident, the structural integrity of nuclear power plants due to the beyond design basis earthquake is one of key safety issues. Accordingly, it is necessary to conduct structural integrity evaluations for domestic NPPs under beyond design basis earthquake. In this study, the Level 3 LBB (Leak Before Break) evaluation was performed by considering the beyond design basis earthquake for the surge line of a OPR1000 plant of which design basis earthquake was set to be 0.2g. The beyond design basis earthquake corresponding to peak ground acceleration 0.4g at the maximum stress point of the surge line was considered. It was confirmed that the moment behaviors of the hot leg and pressurized surge nozzle were lower than the maximum allowable loading in moment-rotation curve. It was also confirmed that the LBB margin could be secured by comparing the LBB margin through the Level 2 method. It was judged that the margin was secured by reducing the load generated through the compliance of the pipe.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.311-318
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• 2016

The lead-rubber bearing (LRB) dissipates seismic energy through plastic deformation of lead core. Under large-displacement cyclic motion, the temperature increases in the lead core. The shear strength of a lead-rubber bearing is reduced due to the heating effect of the lead core. In this study, the seismic responses such as displacement increasing, shear strength and vertical stiffness degradations of LRB due to the heating effect are evaluated for design basis earthquake (DBE) and beyond design basis earthquake (150% DBE, 167% DBE, 200% DBE).

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.170-181
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• 2018

Because of the design and construction requirements, the nuclear structures need to maintain the structural integrity under both design state and extreme earthquake shaking. The base-isolation technology can significantly reduce the damages of structures under extreme earthquake events, and effectively protect the safeties of structures and internal equipment. This study proposes a base-isolation design for the AP1000 nuclear shield building on considering the performance requirements of the seismic isolation systems and devices of shield building. The seismic responses of isolated and nonisolated shield buildings subjected to design basis earthquake (DBE) shaking and beyond-design basis earthquake (BDBE) shaking are analyzed, and three different strategies for controlling the displacements subjected to BDBE shaking are performed. By comparing with nonisolated shield buildings, the floor acceleration spectra of isolated shield buildings, relative displacement, and base shear force are significantly reduced in high-frequency region. The results demonstrate that the base-isolation technology is an effective approach to maintain the structural integrity which subjected to both DBE and BDBE shaking. A displacement control design for isolation layers subjected to BDBE shaking, which adopts fluid dampers for controlling the horizontal displacement of isolation layer is developed. The effectiveness of this simple method is verified through numerical analysis.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.319-329
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• 2016

The Eradi Quake System (EQS) is a seismic isolation bearing system designed to minimize forces and displacements experienced by structures subjected to ground motion. The EQS dissipates seismic energy through friction of Poly Tetra Fluoro Ethylene (PTFE) disk pad. In general, a force-displacement relationship of EQS has post yield stiffness hardening during large inelastic displacement. In this study, seismic responses of seismically isolated nuclear power plant (NPP) subjected to design basis earthquake (DBE) and beyond design basis earthquakes (150% DBE and 167% DBE) are compared considering the post yield stiffness hardening effect of EQS. From the results, it can be observed that if the post-yield stiffness hardening effect of EQS is increased, the displacement response of EQS is reduced, and the acceleration and shear responses of containment structures of NPP is increased.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2017

After Kyeongju earthquake occurred in September 12, 2016, the seismic safety of nuclear power plants became important issue in our country. The seismic safety of nuclear power plant against beyond design basis earthquake became very important to secure the public safety. In this paper, the current status of the seismic safety assessment methodology is reviewed and some aspects for the reliability improvement of the seismic safety assessment results are proposed. Seismic margin analysis and probabilistic seismic safety assessment have been used for the seismic safety evaluation of a nuclear power pant. The basic procedure and the related issues and proposals for the probabilistic seismic safety assessment are investigated.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.139-145
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• 2023

It is essential to determine a proper earthquake time history as a seismic load in a seismic design for a critical structure. In the code, a seismic load should satisfy a design response spectrum and include the characteristic of a target fault. The characteristic of a fault can be represented by a definition of a type of possible earthquake time history shape that occurred in a target fault. In this paper, the pseudo-basis function is proposed to be used to construct a specific type of earthquake, including the characteristic of a target fault. The pseudo-basis function is derived from analyzing the earthquake time history of specific fault harmonic wavelet transform. To show the feasibility of this method, the proposed method was applied to the faults causing the Gyeong-Ju ML5.8 and Pohang ML5.3 earthquakes.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.611-623
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• 2019

A set of mid-rise bare and uniformly infilled reinforced-concrete frame buildings are analyzed for two different seismic intensities of ground-motions (i.e., 'Design Basis Earthquake' and 'Maximum Considered Earthquake') to study their floor response. The crucial parameters affecting seismic design force for acceleration-sensitive non-structural components are studied and compared with the guidelines of the European and the United States standards, and also with the recently developed NIST provisions. It is observed that the provisions of both the European and the United States standards do not account for the effects of the period of vibration of the supporting structure and seismic intensity of ground-motions and thereby provides conservative estimates of the in-structure amplification. In case of bare frames, the herein derived component amplification factors for both the design basis earthquake and the maximum considered earthquake exceeds with their recommended values in the European and the United States standards for non-structural components having periods in vicinity of the higher modes of vibration, whereas, in case of infilled frames, component amplification factors exceeds with their recommended value in the European standard for non-structural components having periods in vicinity of the fundamental mode of vibration, and only for the design basis earthquake. As a consequence of these observations, as well as capping on the design force (in case of United states standard and NIST provisions), in case of the design basis earthquake, the combined amplification factor is underestimated for non-structural components having periods in vicinity of the higher modes of vibration of bare frames, and also for non-structural components having periods in vicinity of the fundamental mode of vibration of infilled frames. At the maximum considered earthquake demand, excepting non-structural components having periods in vicinity of the higher modes of vibration of bare frames, all provisions generally provide conservative estimates of the design floor accelerations.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.291-299
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• 2014

There has been an increasing demand for introducing a base isolation system to secure the seismic safety of a nuclear power plant. However, the design criteria and the safety assessment methodology of a base isolated nuclear facility are still being developed. A performance based design concept for the base isolation system needs to be added to the general seismic design procedures. For the base isolation system, the displacement responses of isolators excited by the extended design basis earthquake are important as well as the design displacement. The possible displacement response by the extended design basis earthquake should be limited less than the failure displacement of the isolator. The failure of isolators were investigated by an experimental test to define the ultimate strain level of rubber bearings. The uncertainty analysis, considering the variations of the mechanical properties of isolators and input ground motions, was performed to estimate the probabilistic distribution of the isolator displacement. The relationship of the displacement response by each ground motion level was compared in view of a period elongation and a reduction of damping. Finally, several examples of isolator parameters are calculated and the considerations for an acceptable isolation design is discussed.