Abstract

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s functional containment concept provides advanced nuclear power plant designers with more flexibility in terms of the civil/structural design if the appropriate set of barriers for prevention of radioactive material release exist. Some of the conceptual advanced reactor structures, without the traditional pressure boundaries of large containment structures, are proposed to be deeply embedded or buried into soil. This approach is expected to provide (1) lesser seismic demands on the structures and safety-critical structures, (2) eased regulatory efforts and overall design against other external hazards such as aircraft impact, and (3) overall cost savings. One of the important aspects of assessing the technical and economic viability of deeply embedding advanced reactor buildings is to assess the seismic performance with the understanding of effects with material and geometric nonlinearities. This study investigates the seismic response of deeply embedded or buried advanced reactors by conducting three-dimensional nonlinear soil-structure interaction analyses. Although the results indicate that there is a general trend of decreased seismic response with increased embedment depths, the change in the dynamic environment with different embedment depths and the nonlinear environment under high-intensity seismic inputs may result in increased peak response at increased embedment depths.

摘要

如果存在防止放射性物质释放的适当屏障，美国核管理委员会的功能性安全壳概念在土木/结构设计方面为先进的核电站设计者提供了更大的灵活性。一些概念上的先进反应堆结构，没有大型安全壳结构的传统压力边界，被提议深埋或埋入土壤中。预计这种方法将提供 (1) 对结构和安全关键结构的抗震要求较低，(2) 减轻监管工作和整体设计以应对其他外部危害，如飞机撞击，以及 (3) 总体成本节约。评估深度嵌入先进反应堆建筑物的技术和经济可行性的重要方面之一是通过了解材料和几何非线性的影响来评估抗震性能。本研究通过进行三维非线性土壤-结构相互作用分析来研究深埋或掩埋先进反应堆的地震响应。尽管结果表明随着埋置深度的增加，地震响应总体上存在减小的趋势，但不同埋置深度的动力环境和高强度地震输入下的非线性环境的变化可能会导致埋置深度增加时峰值响应增加。本研究通过进行三维非线性土壤-结构相互作用分析来研究深埋或掩埋先进反应堆的地震响应。尽管结果表明随着埋置深度的增加，地震响应总体上存在减小的趋势，但不同埋置深度的动力环境和高强度地震输入下的非线性环境的变化可能会导致埋置深度增加时峰值响应增加。本研究通过进行三维非线性土壤-结构相互作用分析来研究深埋或掩埋先进反应堆的地震响应。尽管结果表明随着埋置深度的增加，地震响应总体上存在减小的趋势，但不同埋置深度的动力环境和高强度地震输入下的非线性环境的变化可能会导致埋置深度增加时峰值响应增加。