Implementation of a coupled FEM-SBFEM for soil-structure interaction analysis of large-scale 3D base-isolated nuclear structures

Abstract

Accurately simulating the radiation damping of an infinite domain is a crucial issue for reasonably and effectively evaluating the isolation effect of three-dimensional (3D) base-isolated nuclear structures considering soil-structure interaction (SSI). The scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM) has excellent advantages that enable it to precisely fulfil the radiation conditions. In this study, the finite element method (FEM) and SBFEM were combined to develop a coupled FEM-SBFEM technology. The structure and finite domain were discretized using FEM, and the infinite soil was realised using SBFEM. A complete and efficient calculation procedure for SSI analysis was developed based on the coupled FEM-SBFEM, improving the calculation efficiency through parallel programming. The accuracy of the developed procedure was verified using a numerical example. Furthermore, the dynamic response of a large-scale refined 3D base-isolated reactor building considering SSI was analysed using the proposed method. The results demonstrate that the 3D base isolation technology has excellent isolation performance. Additionally, we compared the response results of the proposed coupled FEM-SBFEM and direct method. The proposed procedure has broad engineering applicability and can be used for seismic SSI analysis of large-scale nuclear structures while maintaining high computational accuracy and stability.