Experimental and numerical studies on shield building on non-rock site

Abstract

Fluid-structure interaction (FSI) and soil-structure interaction (SSI) affect the seismic response of third-generation pressurized water reactor (PWR) nuclear power plants on non-rock site. In this paper, two 1/50 scaled simplified models were designed and a series of shaking table tests were carried to study the seismic responses of models considering FSI and SSI effect. Dynamic characteristics, acceleration, strain, hydrodynamic pressure and experimental phenomenon of the two models were analyzed. Moreover, the numerical analysis was performed and numerical results were compared with test data. The results show that the presence of model soil reduces the system’s frequency, and the presence and sloshing of water reduce the seismic response of model structure. The reasonableness and feasibility of the method used for the numerical simulation is verified. This study could provide a reference for analyzing the seismic response of prototype structure of nuclear power plant.