Uncertainty quantification of seismic response of reactor building considering different modeling methods

Choi, B.  ; Nishida, Akemi  ; Muramatsu, Ken*; Itoi, Tatsuya*; Takada, Tsuyoshi*  

After the 2011 Fukushima accident, the seismic regulation for Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) have been strengthened to take countermeasures against accidents beyond design basis conditions. Therefore, the importance of seismic probabilistic risk assessment has drawn much attention. Uncertainty quantification is a very important issue in the fragility assessment for NPP buildings. In this study, the authors focus on the epistemic uncertainty that can be reduced, and aims to clarify the effects due to different modeling methods of NPP buildings on seismic response results. As the first step of this study, the authors compared the effects on seismic response using two kinds of modeling methods. In order to evaluate the effect, seismic response analysis was performed on two types of building models; the three dimensional finite element model and the conventional lumped mass with sway-rocking model. As the input ground motion, the authors adopted 200 types of simulated seismic ground motions generated by fault rupture models with stochastic seismic source characteristics. For the uncertainty quantification, the authors conducted statistical analyses of the effects on seismic response results of two kinds of modeling methods on building response for each input ground motions, and quantitatively evaluated the uncertainty of response considering different modeling methods. In particular, the difference in modeling methods clearly appeared near the openings of the floors and walls. The authors also report on the knowledge about these three-dimensional effects in seismic response analysis.