Session: SE-02-02 Seismic Isolation and Structural Dynamics-2

Paper Number: 125212

125212 - Verification of Earthquake Simulation Capabilities for Small Modular Reactor (Smr) Floating Seismic Isolation Systems 

The ability to ensure robust seismic resilience is a critical requirement for all nuclear power plants (NPPs). There have been a number of innovative technologies considered for seismic response modification for NPPs, including application of traditional seismic base isolationtechnologies that are widely used in the building and transportation industry to ensure adequate site-specific earthquake performance. A unique, new response modification concept based on the utilization of a floating plant has recently been proposed. The underlying principleincludes exploitation of the fact that shear waves cannot propagate through water, and floating a reactor building on a reservoir of water can isolate the reactor building from incoming earthquake-induced shear waves. In addition to isolation in the horizontal directions, the proposed system would reduce seismic demand in the vertical direction by utilizing air cavities and orifices. In order to comprehensively explore the seismic performance of such a system, it is essential to have computational simulation models that can accurately represent the earthquake-induced transient dynamic response of such coupled structure-fluid-air-soil systems. The objective of this work is to provide the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission with the technical insights and knowledge to appropriately evaluate the seismic performance of this new class of innovative isolation systems. In the work described in this article, existing finite element software programs, that have been extensively utilized in earthquake simulations, are critically evaluated in terms of their features and ability to estimate the transient earthquake response of the floating isolation systems. A suite of numerical tests aimed at verifying the ability to first initialize gravity, and then represent system transient response due to earthquake shaking with appropriate system damping, are described.

Presenting Author: David Mccallen Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of Nevada, Reno

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. McCallen is a Senior Scientist in the Energy Geosciences Division at
Lawrence Berkeley Lab and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at
the University of Nevada, Reno. Dr. McCallen’s research interests range from
high performance simulations to experimental testing on earthquake simulation
shake tables. Dr. McCallen has worked in a number of positions related to the
DOE National Laboratories at Lawrence Livermore Lab and Lawrence Berkeley
Lab. His career started in the Structural and Applied Mechanics Group at
Livermore where he developed computational software and performed advanced
simulations on complex structures. His responsibilities eventually extended to
leadership of major programs including Engineering Division Leader for the
National Ignition Facility, and Deputy Principal Associate Director for Global
Security. Dr. McCallen maintains an active research program and is currently the
Principal Investigator for a DOE Exascale Application Development project
focused on massively parallel simulations for regional scale earthquake risk
assessments.
David McCallen
Energy Geosciences Division
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Simon Wong Faculty Scholar
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of Nevada, Reno

Authors:

Maryam Tabbakhha Lawrence Berkeley lab
David Mccallen Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of Nevada, Reno
Mamun Miah Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Jinsuo Nie U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Weijun Wang U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Vladimir Graizer U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Jose Pires U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Laurel Bauer U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission