Abstract
To assure seismic isolation performance against design and beyond design basis earthquakes in the nuclear facility components, the lead inserted small-sized laminated rubber bearings (LRB), which has a 10 kN vertical design load, have been designed and quasi-statically tested to validate their design mechanical properties in previous studies. Following this study, the seismic shaking tests of these full-scale LRBs are performed and discussed in this paper with the dummy mass system to investigate actual seismic isolation performance, dynamic characteristics of LRBs, consistency of the LRB’s quality, and so on. To study the seismic isolation performance, three beam structures (S1–S3) with different natural frequencies were installed both on the shaking table and the dummy mass supported by four LRBs: (1) S1: structure close to seismic isolation frequency; (2) S2: structure close to peak input spectral frequency; (3) S3: structure in the high-frequency region. The test results are described in various seismic levels of OBE (Operating Basis Earthquake), SSE (Safe Shutdown Earthquake), and BDBE (Beyond Design Basis Earthquake), and are compared with the analysis results to assure the seismic isolation performance and the LRB’s design parameters. From the results of the shaking table tests, it is confirmed that the lead inserted small-sized LRBs reveal an adequate seismic isolation performance and their dynamic characteristics as intended in the LRB design.
Highlights
After Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, many efforts have been made to enhance the seismic capacity of nuclear power plants, especially for old nuclear power plants in operation, and to accommodate the beyond design basis earthquakes.In general, the seismic capacity of the nuclear power plants has been handled at the plant level, but recently the individual seismic capacity of the safety-related facility components such as control cabinet, emergency diesel generator, remote shutdown console, battery pack, spent fuel rack, and so on has become important in determining the seismic capacity of nuclear power plants
To confirm the seismic isolation performance, three beam structures with different natural frequencies are installed both on the shaking table and the dummy mass supported by the laminated rubber bearings (LRB), and their seismic responses of non-seismic isolation and seismic isolation cases are measured for comparison
Through all shaking table tests specified in the test matrix and seismic verification
Summary
After Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, many efforts have been made to enhance the seismic capacity of nuclear power plants, especially for old nuclear power plants in operation, and to accommodate the beyond design basis earthquakes.In general, the seismic capacity of the nuclear power plants has been handled at the plant level, but recently the individual seismic capacity of the safety-related facility components such as control cabinet, emergency diesel generator, remote shutdown console, battery pack, spent fuel rack, and so on has become important in determining the seismic capacity of nuclear power plants. Enhancing the seismic capacity of the operating nuclear power plants, which have experienced various aging environments for a long service lifetime, is a critical issue in points of safety against potential beyond design basis earthquakes. The laminated rubber bearings (LRB) have been popularly developed in many countries for nuclear applications because they can support very heavyweight and are very flexible in shear deformation against horizontal earthquakes. Due to these characteristics, LRBs have been generally developed for seismic isolation of buildings [10,11,12,13,14,15,16]. There are very few studies of the shaking table tests for the full-scale LRBs
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