• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권3호
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• pp.967-973
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• 2021

In 2011, an earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, causing simultaneous accidents in several reactors. This accident shows us that if there are several reactors on site, the seismic risk to multiple units is important to consider, in addition to that to single units in isolation. When a seismic event occurs, a seismic-failure correlation exists between the nuclear power plant's structures, systems, and components (SSCs) due to their seismic-response and seismic-capacity correlations. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the multi-unit seismic risk by considering the SSCs' seismic-failure-correlation effect. In this study, a methodology is proposed to obtain the seismic-response-correlation coefficient between SSCs to calculate the risk to multi-unit facilities. This coefficient is calculated from a probabilistic multi-unit seismic-response analysis. The seismic-response and seismic-failure-correlation coefficients of the emergency diesel generators installed within the units are successfully derived via the proposed method. In addition, the distribution of the seismic-response-correlation coefficient was observed as a function of the distance between SSCs of various dynamic characteristics. It is demonstrated that the proposed methodology can reasonably derive the seismic-response-correlation coefficient between SSCs, which is the input data for multi-unit seismic probabilistic safety assessment.

• 한국지진공학회논문집
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.101-108
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• 2019

The seismic safety of nuclear power plants has always been emphasized by the effects of accidents. In general, the seismic safety evaluation of nuclear power plants carries out a seismic probabilistic safety assessment. The current probabilistic safety assessment assumes that damage to the structure, system, and components (SSCs) occurs independently to each other or perfect dependently to each other. In case of earthquake events, the failure event occurs with the correlation due to the correlation between the seismic response of the SSCs and the seismic performance of the SSCs. In this study, the EEMS (External Event Mensuration System) code is developed which can perform the seismic probabilistic safety assessment considering correlation. The developed code is verified by comparing with the multiplier n, which is for calculating the joint probability of failure, which is proposed by Mankamo. It is analyzed the changes in seismic fragility curves and seismic risks with correlation. As a result, it was confirmed that the seismic fragility curves and seismic risk change according to the failure correlation coefficient. This means that it is important to select an appropriate failure correlation coefficient in order to perform a seismic probabilistic safety assessment. And also, it was confirmed that carrying out the seismic probabilistic safety assessment in consideration of the seismic correlation provides more realistic results, rather than providing conservative or non-conservative results comparing with that damage to the SSCs occurs independently.

• 한국지진공학회논문집
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• 제25권2호
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• pp.53-58
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• 2021

Nuclear power plant's safety against seismic events is evaluated as risk values by probabilistic seismic safety assessment. The risk values vary by the seismic failure correlation between the structures, systems, and components (SSCs). However, most probabilistic seismic safety assessments idealized the seismic failure correlation between the SSCs as entirely dependent or independent. Such a consideration results in an inaccurate assessment result not reflecting real physical phenomenon. A nuclear power plant's seismic risk should be calculated with the appropriate seismic failure correlation coefficient between the SSCs for a reasonable outcome. An accident scenario that has an enormous impact on a nuclear power plant's seismic risk was selected. Moreover, the probabilistic seismic response analyses of a nuclear power plant were performed to derive appropriate seismic failure correlations between SSCs. Based on the analysis results, the seismic failure correlation coefficient between SSCs was derived, and the seismic fragility curve and core damage frequency of the loss of essential power event were calculated. Results were compared with the seismic fragility and core damage frequency of assuming the seismic failure correlations between SSCs were independent and entirely dependent.

• 한국지진공학회논문집
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• 제25권6호
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• pp.267-274
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• 2021

Seismic fragility analysis of a structure is generally performed for the expected critical component of a structure. The seismic fragility analysis assumes that all the components behave independently in a structural system. A bridge system consists of many inter-connected components. Thus, for an accurate evaluation of the seismic fragility of a bridge, the seismic fragility analysis requires the composition of probabilities considering the correlation between structural components. This study presented a procedure to obtain the seismic fragility curve of a bridge system, considering the correlation between bridge components. Seismic fragility analysis was performed on a PSC bridge that is considered as the central infrastructure. The analysis results showed that the probability of the seismic fragility curve of the bridge system was higher than that of each bridge component.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제52권10호
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• pp.2238-2249
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• 2020

In a seismic PSA, dependency among seismic failures of components has not been explicitly modeled in the fault tree or event tree. This dependency is separately identified and assigned with numbers that range from zero to unity that reflect the level of the mutual correlation among seismic failures. Because of complexity and difficulty in calculating combination probabilities of correlated seismic failures in complex seismic event tree and fault tree, there has been a great need of development to explicitly model seismic correlation in terms of seismic common cause failures (CCFs). If seismic correlations are converted into seismic CCFs, it is possible to calculate an accurate value of a top event probability or frequency of a complex seismic fault tree by using the same procedure as for internal, fire, and flooding PSA. This study first proposes a methodology to explicitly model seismic dependency by converting correlated seismic failures into seismic CCFs. As a result, this methodology will allow systems analysts to quantify seismic risk as what they have done with the CCF method in internal, fire, and flooding PSA.

• 한국지진공학회논문집
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.63-70
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• 2016

This study is the sequel of a companion paper (I. Algorithm) for assessment of the seismic performance evaluation of structure using ground motions selected by the proposed algorithm. To evaluate the effect of the correlation structures of selected ground motions on the seismic responses of a structure, three sets of ground motions are selected with and without consideration of the correlation structure. Nonlinear response history analyses of a 20-story reinforced concrete frame are conducted using the three sets of ground motions. This study shows that the seismic responses of the frames vary according to ground motion selection and correlation structures.

• 한국전산구조공학회논문집
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• 제34권5호
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• pp.319-325
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• 2021

후쿠시마 원전사고 발생으로 다수기의 지진안전성에 관한 연구의 필요성이 부각되었다. 한 부지에 건설된 원자력발전소의 경우 유사한 지진응답을 보이기 때문에 적게나마 원자력발전소 SSCs간의 지진손상에 대하여 상관성이 존재하므로 합리적 지진안전성 평가를 위하여 지진손상 상관성을 고려하여야 한다. 본 연구에서는 쌍둥이 호기의 필수전원상실사건에 대하여 확률론적 지진안전성 평가를 수행하였다. 적절한 지진손상 상관계수를 도출하기 위하여 확률론적 지진응답해석을 수행하여 적용하였다. External Event Mensuration System 프로그램을 활용하여 다수기의 필수전원상실사건의 고장수목을 구성하여 지진취약도 및 지진리스크를 분석하였다. 또한 SSCs간의 지진손상 상관성을 완전독립 및 완전종속으로 고려하여 비교 분석을 수행하였다.

• 한국전산구조공학회논문집
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• 제33권6호
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• pp.401-409
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• 2020

확률론적 지진취약도 평가는 구조물 혹은 기기의 손상확률을 각 취약도 변수별 조합을 통해 이루어진다. 지진취약도로부터 구해지는 2개 이상 기기의 동시손상확률 계산은 기존에는 각 기기의 손상확률을 독립으로 가정해 왔다. 하지만 기기별 손상확률에 상관성이 있으며, 이를 평가한 결과 상관성에 따라 동시손상확률이 변화할 수 있는 결과를 보였다. 이 지진상관성을 무시하면 비보수적인 결과가 나오고 따라서 이를 고려해서 계산되어야 한다. 이 연구에서는 지진상관계수를 해석적으로 평가하기 위해 몇 가지 확률 변수를 선정하여 각 변수별로 혹은 통합하여 평가하고 그 차이를 비교했다. 그리고 단순화된 모델과, 복잡한 모델에 대한 상관계수 차이도 비교하였다. 이들 방법에 따른 상관계수의 결과와 차이를 분석했다. 그 결과 각 변수별로 평가하는 것과 통합하여 평가할 때 변수별 영향의 차이에 따라 상관성이 변화함을 확인하였고, 모델이 단순할수록 상관성이 높아짐을 확인하였다.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제14권1호
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• pp.55-71
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• 2018

This paper investigates the role of the masonry infills on the correlation between widely used earthquake Intensity Measures (IMs) and the damage state of 3D R/C buildings taking into account the orientation of the seismic input. For the purposes of the investigation an extensive parametric study is conducted using 60 R/C buildings with different heights, structural systems and masonry infills' distributions. The results reveal that the correlation between the IMs and the seismic damage can be strongly affected by the masonry infills' distribution, depending on the special characteristics of the structural system, the number of stories and the incident angle.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제52권1호
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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.