• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.1567-1576
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• 2023

The reactor containment building (RCB) in nuclear power plants (NPPs) plays an important role in protecting the reactor systems from external loads as well as preventing radioactive leaking. As we witnessed the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi (Japan) in 2011, the earthquake is one of the major threats to NPPs. The purpose of this study is to evaluate effects of concrete material models and presstressing forces on the seismic performance evaluation of RCB in NPPs. A typical RCB designed in Korea is employed for a case study. Detailed three-dimensional nonlinear finite element models of RCB are developed in ANSYS. A series of pushover analyses are then performed to obtain the pushover curves of RCB. Different capacity curves are compared to recognize the influence of different material models on the nonlinear behavior of RCB. Additionally, the effects of prestressing forces on the seismic performances of the structure are also investigated. Moreover, a set of damage states corresponding to damage evolutions of the structures is proposed in this study.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.03a
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• pp.597-604
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• 2006

The seismic safety of the prestressed concrete containment building was evaluated by the seismic fragility analysis based on the nonlinear dynamic time-history analyses. Four kinds of earthquake ground motions were used for the seismic fragility analysis of the containment building to consider the potential earthquake hazard. The conventional seismic fragility analysis of the safety related structures in nuclear pouter plant have been performed by using the linear elastic analysis results for the seismic design. In this study, the displacement based seismic fragility analysis method was proposed.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.10 no.1 s.47
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• pp.63-74
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• 2006

The seismic fragility analysis method has been used as a quantitative seismic safety evaluation method for the NPP(Nuclear Power Plant) structures and equipments. The seismic fragility analysis gives a realistic seismic capacity excluding the convertism included in the design stage. The conservatism is considered as the probabilistic parameters related to the response and capacity in the seismic fragility analysis. In this study, the displacement based seismic fragility analysis method was proposed based on the nonlinear dynamic analysis results. In this study, the seismic safety of the prestressed concrete containment building of KSNP(Korean Standard Nuclear Power Plant) was evaluated for the scenario earthquakes, neat-fault, far-fault, design earthquake and probability based scenario earthquake, which can be occurred in the NPP sites.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.337-350
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• 2016

Even though extensive researches have been performed for steam explosion due to their complex mechanisms and inherent uncertainties, establishment of severe accident management guidelines and strategies is one of state-of-the arts in nuclear industry. The goal of this research is primarily to examine effects of vessel failure modes and locations on nuclear facilities under typical steam explosion conditions. Both discrete and integrated models were employed from the viewpoint of structural integrity assessment of steel components and evaluation of the cracking and crushing in reinforced concrete structures. Thereafter, comparison of systematic analysis results was performed; despite the vessel failure modes were dominant, resulting maximum stresses at the all steel components were sufficiently lower than the corresponding yield strengths. Two failure criteria for the reinforced concrete structures such as the limiting failure ratio of concrete and the limiting strains for rebar and liner plate were satisfied under steam explosion conditions. Moreover, stresses of steel components and reinforced concrete structures were reduced with maximum difference of 12% when the integrated model was adopted comparing to those of discrete models.

• 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.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.155-163
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• 2023

Real-time monitoring technology is critical for ensuring the safety and reliability of nuclear power plant structures. However, the current seismic monitoring system has limited system identification capabilities such as modal parameter estimation. To obtain global behavior data and dynamic characteristics, multiple sensors must be optimally placed. Although several studies on optimal sensor placement have been conducted, they have primarily focused on civil and mechanical structures. Nuclear power plant structures require robust signals, even at low signal-to-noise ratios, and the robustness of each mode must be assessed separately. This is because the mode contributions of nuclear power plant containment buildings are concentrated in low-order modes. Therefore, this study proposes an optimal sensor placement methodology that can evaluate robustness against noise and the effects of each mode. Indicators, such as auto modal assurance criterion (MAC), cross MAC, and mode shape distribution by node were analyzed, and the suitability of the methodology was verified through numerical analysis.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.1051-1065
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• 2020

Safety analysis of nuclear power plant (NPP) especially in accident conditions is a basic and necessary issue for applications and commercialization of reactors. Many previous researches and development works have been conducted. However, most achievements focused on the safety reliability of primary pressure system vessels. Few literatures studied the structural safety of huge concrete structures surrounding primary pressure system, especially for the fourth generation NPP which allows existing of through cracks. In this paper, structural safety reliability of concrete structures of HTR-PM in accidental double-ended break of hot gas ducts was studied by Exceedance Probability Method. It was calculated by Monte Carlo approaches applying numerical simulations by Abaqus. Damage parameters were proposed and used to define the property of concrete, which can perfectly describe the crack state of concrete structures. Calculation results indicated that functional failure determined by deterministic safety analysis was decided by the crack resistance capability of containment buildings, whereas the bearing capacity of concrete structures possess a high safety margin. The failure probability of concrete structures during an accident of double-ended break of hot gas ducts will be 31.18%. Adding the consideration the contingency occurrence probability of the accident, probability of functional failure is sufficiently low.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.295-306
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• 2018

Reinforced concrete containment (RCC) building has long been considered as the last barrier for keeping the radiation from leaking into the environment. It is important to quantify the performance of these structures and facilities considering extreme conditions. However, the preceding research on evaluating nuclear power plant (NPP) structures, particularly considering mainshock-aftershock seismic sequences, is deficient. Therefore, this manuscript serves to investigate the seismic fragility of a typical RCC building subjected to mainshock-aftershock seismic sequences. The implementation of the fragility assessment has been performed based on the incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) method. A lumped mass RCC model considering the tri-linear skeleton curve and the maximum point-oriented hysteretic rule is employed for IDA analyses. The results indicate that the seismic capacity of the RCC building would be overestimated without taking into account the mainshock-aftershock effects. It is also found that the seismic capacity of the RCC building decreases with the increase of the relative intensity of aftershock ground motions to mainshock ground motions. In addition, the effects of artificial mainshock-aftershock ground motions generated from the repeated and randomized approaches and the polarity of the aftershock with respect to the mainshock on the evaluation of the RCC are also researched, respectively.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.10 no.6 s.52
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• pp.137-145
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• 2006

Recently, the interests in structural monitoring of civil infrastructures are increased. Especially, as the civil infrastructures such as bridges, tunnels and buildings become large-scale, it is necessary to monitor and maintain the safety state of the structures, which requires smart systems that can supply long-term monitoring during the service time of the structures. In this paper, we investigated the possibilities of fiber optic sensor application to the various structures. We investigate the possibility of using fiber optic Bragg grating sensors to joint structure. The sensors show good response to the structural behavior of the joint while electric gauges lack of sensitivity, durability and long term stability for continuous monitoring. We also apply fiber optic structural monitoring to the composite repaired concrete beam structure. Peel-out effects is detected with optical fiber Bragg grating sensors and the strain difference between main structure and repaired carbon sheets is observed when they separate each other. The real field test was performed to verify the behaviors of fiber Bragg grating sensors attached to the containment structure in Uljin nuclear power plant in Korea as a part of structural integrity test which demonstrates that the structural response of the non-prototype primary containment structures. The optical fiber Bragg grating sensor smart system which is the probable means for long term assessments can be applicable to monitoring of structural members in various civil infrastructures.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.192-205
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• 2020

Seismic design practices and seismic response analyses of civil structures and nuclear power plants (NPPs) have conventionally used the peak ground acceleration (PGA) or spectral acceleration (S_a) as an intensity measure (IM) of an earthquake. However, there are many other earthquake IMs that were proposed by various researchers. The aim of this study is to investigate the correlation between seismic responses of NPP components and 23 earthquake IMs and identify the best IMs for correlating with damage of NPP structures. Particularly, low- and high-frequency ground motion records are separately accounted in correlation analyses. An advanced power reactor NPP in Korea, APR1400, is selected for numerical analyses where containment and auxiliary buildings are modeled using SAP2000. Floor displacements and accelerations are monitored for the non- and base-isolated NPP structures while shear deformations of the base isolator are additionally monitored for the base-isolated NPP. A series of Pearson's correlation coefficients are calculated to recognize the correlation between each of the 23 earthquake IMs and responses of NPP structures. The numerical results demonstrate that there is a significant difference in the correlation between earthquake IMs and seismic responses of non-isolated NPP structures considering low- and high-frequency ground motion groups. Meanwhile, a trivial discrepancy of the correlation is observed in the case of the base-isolated NPP subjected to the two groups of ground motions. Moreover, a selection of PGA or S_a for seismic response analyses of NPP structures in the high-frequency seismic regions may not be the best option. Additionally, a set of fragility curves are thereafter developed for the base-isolated NPP based on the shear deformation of lead rubber bearing (LRB) with respect to the strongly correlated IMs. The results reveal that the probability of damage to the structure is higher for low-frequency earthquakes compared with that of high-frequency ground motions.