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To safely assess the adequacy of the LMR piping, a three-dimensional piping code, SHAPS, has been developed at Argonne National Laboratory. This code was initially intended for calculating hydrodynamic-wave propagation in a complex piping network. It has salient features for treating fluid transients of fluid-structure interactions for piping with in-line components. The code also provides excellent structural capabilities of computing stresses arising from internal pressurization and 3-D flexural motion of the piping system. As part of the development effort, the SHAPS code has been further augmented recently by introducing the capabilities of calculating piping response subjected to seismic excitations. This paper describes the finite-element numerical algorithm and its applications to LMR piping under seismic excitations. A time-history analysis technique using the implicit temporal integration scheme is addressed. A 3-D pipe element is formulated which has eight degrees of freedom per node (three displacements, three rotations, one membrane displacement, and one bending rotation) to account for the hoop, flexural, rotational, and torsional modes of the piping system. Both geometric and material nonlinearities are considered. This algorithm is unconditionally stable and is particularly suited for the seismic analysis.
Because of high operation temperature, the LMR (Liquid Metal Reactor) plant is characterized by the thin-walled piping and components. Gaps are often present to allow free thermal expansion during normal plant operation. Under dynamic loadings, such as seismic excitation, if the relative displacement between the components exceeds the gap distance, impacts will occur. Since the components and piping become brittle over their design lifetime, impact is of important concern for it may lead to fractures of components and other serious effects. This paper deals with gap and impact problems in the LMR reactor components and piping systems. Emphasis is on the impacts due to seismic motion. Eight sections are contained in this paper. The gap and impact problems in LMR piping systems are described and a parametric study is performed on the effects of gap-induced support nonlinearity on the dynamics characteristics of the LMR piping systems. Gap and impact problems in the LMR reactor components are identified and their mathematical models are illustrated, and the gap and impact problems in the seismic reactor scram are discussed. The mathematical treatments of various impact models are also described. The uncertainties in the current seismic impact analyses of LMR components and structures are presented. An impact test on a 1/10-scale LMR thermal liner is described. The test results indicated that several clusters of natural modes can be excited by the impact force. The frequency content of the excited modes depends on the duration of the impact force; the shorter the duration, the higher the frequency content.
This paper describes the seismic study of a 450-MWe liquid metal reactor (LMR) under 0.3-g SSE ground excitation. Two calculations were performed using the new design configuration. They deal with the seismic response of the reactor vessel, the guard vessel and support skirt, respectively. In both calculations, the stress and displacement fields at important locations of those components are investigated. Assessments are also made on the elastic and inelastic structural capabilities for other beyond-design basis seismic loads. Results of the reactor vessel analysis reveal that the maximum equivalent stress is only about half of the material yield stress. For the guard vessel and support skirt, the stress level is very small. Regarding the analysis if inelastic structural capability, solutions of the Newmark-Hall ductility modification method show that the reactor vessel can withstand seismics with ground ZPAs ranging from 1.015 to 1.31 g, which corresponds to 3.37 to 4.37 times the basic 0.3-g SSE. Thus, the reactor vessel and guard vessel are strong enough to resist seismic loads. 4 refs., 10 figs., 5 tabs.
In recent years, base isolation has been applied to various civil structures such as bridges and buildings for the purpose of reducing its acceleration to below the level of ground accelerations during seismic events. The basic principal of base isolation is to introduce a soft layer of material between structure foundation to allow a degree of flexibility in horizontal motions which could reduce the seismic accelerations during earthquakes. If base isolation is properly designed, it shifts the fundamental frequency of the structure away from the damaging frequency range of earthquakes. Thus, the seismic loads transmitted to the structure can be greatly reduced. This is particularly important in Liquid Metal Reactor (LMR) plants, because the components of primary system such as reactor vessel and piping loops are designed to be thin-walled structures and have little inherent seismic resistance. Thus, the use of base isolation offers a viable and effective approach that permits the reactor structures to better withstand the seismic loading. This paper deals with the seismic response of a base isolated large-scale LMR plant. The analysis model was based on a preliminary nuclear island layout developed by EPRI during the concept development phase of the large-scale prototype breeder (LSPB) project. The nuclear island has a dimension of 184'-0'' x 210'-6''; the reactor vessel has an ID of 62 ft and an overall length of 70 ft. Two soil conditions have been considered in the analysis. One is a hard-soil site having a shear wave velocity of 6000 ft/s, and the other is a soft-soil site having a shear wave velocity of 2000 ft/s. For comparison purposes, the responses of a conventional plant (unisolated) was also analyzed. 3 figs., 1 tab.