Application of friction pendulum system to the main control room of a nuclear power plant

Abstract

An experimental and analytical study was performed to determine if the friction pendulum system (FPS) could be applied to the main control room (MCR) of a nuclear power plant as a seismic isolation device. A friction pendulum bearing was fabricated, and the dynamic performance of that bearing was evaluated. A partial model of the MCR with FPS was tested on a shaking table. The model consisted of a cabinet, an access floor, and four friction pendulum bearings. An artificial time history based on the MCR floor response spectrum was used as an earthquake input signal for the test. Analytical and experimental results were compared to verifiy their correlation and to enable the experimental study to cover a range of parametersnot previously studied in other similar experiments. Through these comparisons, it was affirmed that the proposed FPS seismic isolation system can be applied, with high reliability, to the MCR of a nuclear power plant.