Seismic performance of piping systems of isolated nuclear power plants determined by numerical considerations

Abstract

The interest in the seismic performance of nuclear power plants has increased worldwide since the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant incident. In Korea, interest in the seismic safety of nuclear power plants has increased since the earthquake events in Gyeongju (2016) and Pohang (2017). In Korea, studies have been conducted to apply seismic isolation systems to ensure seismic safety while minimizing the design changes to nuclear power plants. Nuclear power plants with seismic isolation systems may have a higher seismic risk due to the failure of the piping system in the structure after a relatively large displacement. Therefore, it is essential to secure the seismic safety of pipes for the safe operation of nuclear power plants. The seismic safety of pipes is determined by seismic fragility analysis. Seismic fragility analysis requires many seismic response analyses because it is a statistical approach to various random variables. Typical numerical conditions affecting the seismic response analysis of pipes are the convergence conditions and mesh size in numerical analysis. This study examined the change in the seismic safety of piping according to the numerical conditions. The difference in the seismic response analysis results of the piping according to the mesh size was analyzed comparatively. In addition, the change in the seismic fragility curve of the piping according to the convergence conditions was investigated.