Beyond design basis seismic evaluation of underground liquid storage tanks in existing nuclear power plants using simple method

Abstract

Nuclear safety-related underground liquid storage tanks, such as those used to store fuel for emergency diesel generators, are critical components for safety of hundreds of existing nuclear power plants (NPP) worldwide. Since most of those NPP will continue to operate for decades, a beyond design base (BDB) seismic screening of safety-related underground tanks in those NPP is beneficial and essential to public safety. The analytical methodology for buried tank subjected to seismic effect, including a BDB seismic evaluation, needs to consider both soil-structure and fluid-structure interaction effects. Comprehensive analysis of such a soil-structure-fluid system is costly and time consuming, often subjected to availability of state-of-art finite element tools. Simple, but practically and reasonably accurate techniques for seismic evaluation of underground liquid storage tanks have not been established. In this study, a mechanics based solution is proposed for the evaluation of a cylindrical underground liquid storage tank using hand calculation methods. For validation, a practical example of two underground diesel fuel tanks in an existing nuclear power plant is presented and application of the proposed method is confirmed by using published results of the computer-aided System for Analysis of Soil Structural Interaction (SASSI). The proposed approach provides an easy to use tool for BDB seismic assessment prior to making decision of applying more costly technique by owner of the nuclear facility.