Ultimate strength of a thin wall tee for sodium cooled fast reactors under seismic loads

Watakabe, Tomoyoshi; Takahashi, Hideki*

Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology, 145(5), p.051502_1 - 051502_11, 2023/10

https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4062675

To ensure the seismic integrity of Sodium Cooled Fast Reactors, both confirming the ultimate strength under a high-level earthquake beyond the design condition and clarifying the design safety margin up to ultimate strength have been focused as important issues. In this study, a series of dynamic failure tests of a thin wall tee for Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactors was conducted. Some discussions related to the thin wall tee are provided on the failure mode under seismic load, dynamic response behavior, accuracy of fatigue prediction by dynamic elastic-plastic analysis, and a safety margin of fatigue evaluation which is included in conventional design rule.

Seismic evaluation of crossover piping on a sodium cooled fast reactor with three-dimensional isolation system

Watakabe, Tomoyoshi; Okuda, Takahiro; Okajima, Satoshi

Proceedings of 30th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE30) (Internet), 5 Pages, 2023/05

A three-dimensional seismic isolation system is planed for application to the conceptual design of a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) in Japan. The crossover piping is laid between the nuclear building with the isolation system and the turbine building without the isolation system. A large displacement of the nuclear building with the isolation system is imposed on the crossover piping, which situation is a particular seismic issue because of the isolation system employment. Furthermore, it should be considered that the SFR operates at elevated temperatures compared with light water reactors. In this study, seismic evaluation using an example of a crossover piping layout was performed in accordance with the elevated temperature code of Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers. According to the evaluation results and the up to date technologies such as knowledge obtained from existing dynamic failure tests of piping components, an appropriate seismic evaluation method for the crossover piping was studied.

Research and examination of seismic safety evaluation and function maintenance for important equipment in nuclear facilities

Furuya, Osamu*; Fujita, Satoshi*; Muta, Hitoshi*; Otori, Yasuki*; Itoi, Tatsuya*; Okamura, Shigeki*; Minagawa, Keisuke*; Nakamura, Izumi*; Fujimoto, Shigeru*; Otani, Akihito*; et al.

Proceedings of ASME 2021 Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference (PVP 2021) (Internet), 6 Pages, 2021/07

Since the Fukushima accident, with the higher safety requirements of nuclear facilities in Japan, suppliers, manufacturers and academic societies have been actively considering the reconstruction of the safety of nuclear facilities from various perspectives. The Nuclear Regulation Authority has formulated new regulatory standards and is in operation. The new regulatory standards are based on defense in depth, and have significantly raised the levels of natural hazards and have requested to strengthen the countermeasures from the perspective of preventing the simultaneous loss of safety functions due to common factors. Facilities for dealing with specific serious accidents are required to have robustness to ensure functions against earthquakes that exceed the design standards to a certain extent. In addition, since the probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) and the safety margin evaluation are performed to include the range beyond the design assumption in the safety improvement evaluation, it is very important to extent the special knowledge in the strength of important equipment for seismic safety. This paper summarizes the research and examination results of specialized knowledge on the concept of maintaining the functions of important seismic facilities and the damage index to be considered by severe earthquakes. In the other paper, the study on reliability of seismic capacity analysis for important equipment in nuclear facilities will be reported.

Application of JSME Seismic Code Case by elastic-plastic response analysis to practical piping system

Otani, Akihito*; Kai, Satoru*; Kaneko, Naoaki*; Watakabe, Tomoyoshi; Ando, Masanori; Tsukimori, Kazuyuki*

Proceedings of 2018 ASME Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference (PVP 2018), 10 Pages, 2018/07

This paper demonstrates an application result of the JSME Seismic Code Case to an actual complex piping system. The secondary coolant piping system of Japanese Fast Breeder Reactor, Monju, was selected as a representative of the complex piping systems. The elastic-plastic time history analysis for the piping system was performed and the piping system has been evaluated according to the JSME Seismic Code Case. The evaluation by the Code Case provides a reasonable result in terms of the piping fatigue evaluation that governs seismic integrity of piping systems.

Development of seismic isolation systems for sodium-cooled fast reactors in Japan

Kawasaki, Nobuchika; Watakabe, Tomoyoshi; Wakai, Takashi; Yamamoto, Tomohiko; Fukasawa, Tsuyoshi*; Okamura, Shigeki*

Proceedings of 2016 ASME Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference (PVP 2016) (Internet), 8 Pages, 2016/07

http://doi.org/10.1115/PVP2016-63437

Sodium-cooled Fast Reactors (SFRs) have components with thinner walls as compared with light water reactors, although Japan is an earthquake-prone country. Thus, seismic isolation systems have been conventionally employed in SFR system design to reduce seismic forces on the systems in Japan. Implementation of seismic design in the reactor core and buckling design in the reactor vessel requires 8 Hz (or less) vertical frequency's isolation system being applied. This paper introduces three isolation concepts to achieve the frequency. The isolation systems, which enable vertical 8 Hz natural frequency, comprise thicker laminated rubber bearings (TRBs). By combining coned disk springs with TRBs, vertical natural frequency is in a range from roughly 3 Hz to 5 Hz. Combining pneumatic springs to RBs and adding the rocking suppression system, vertical natural frequency becomes under 1 Hz. All isolation systems need horizontal damping like oil dampers. A vertical 8 Hz isolation system with TRBs and oil dampers is under development in Japan as a principal isolation concept. The reasons of choosing this system are its simplicity and the number of developing issues. Since TRBs and oil dampers are basic isolation elements, they can be applied to other isolation systems. The response acceleration of 5 Hz vertical isolation is 50% of that of 8 Hz based on the analytical survey. A series of static tests of coned disk springs was carried out to confirm design equations. Based on these knowledge, 5 Hz vertical isolation system with TRBs and the coned disk springs can be designed. The response acceleration of 1 Hz vertical isolation is 10% of that of 8 Hz. A rocking suppression system was studied in the past, and the further simplification of this system is the largest challenge for this concept. These three isolation concepts are isolation candidates for SFRs in Japan. To obtain enough seismic margins for each plant site, these isolation systems need to be developed.

Investigation on ultimate strength of thin wall tee pipe for sodium cooled fast reactor under seismic loading

Watakabe, Tomoyoshi; Tsukimori, Kazuyuki; Otani, Akihito*; Moriizumi, Makoto; Kaneko, Naoaki*

Mechanical Engineering Journal (Internet), 3(3), p.16-00054_1 - 16-00054_11, 2016/06

http://doi.org/10.1299/mej.16-00054

It is important to investigate the failure mode and ultimate strength of piping components in order to evaluate the seismic integrity of piping. Many failure tests of thick wall and high pressure piping for Light Water Reactors (LWRs) have been conducted, and the results suggest that the failure mode that should be considered in the design of a thick wall piping for LWRs under seismic loading is low cycle fatigue. On the other hand, Sodium cooled Fast Reactors (SFRs) is thin wall when compared to LWRs piping. Failure tests of a thin wall piping are necessary because past failure tests for LWRs piping are not enough to discuss failure behavior of a thin wall piping. Therefore, this present work investigated the failure mode and the ultimate strength of thin wall tees.

Investigation on ultimate strength of thin wall tee pipe for sodium cooled fast reactor under seismic loading

Watakabe, Tomoyoshi; Tsukimori, Kazuyuki; Otani, Akihito*; Moriizumi, Makoto; Kaneko, Naoaki*

Proceedings of 23rd International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-23) (DVD-ROM), 8 Pages, 2015/05

Study on strength of thin-walled tee pipe for fast breeder reactors under seismic loading

Watakabe, Tomoyoshi; Tsukimori, Kazuyuki; Otani, Akihito*; Moriizumi, Makoto; Kaneko, Naoaki*

Proceedings of 2014 ASME Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference (PVP 2014) (DVD-ROM), 8 Pages, 2014/07

In recent years, earthquakes over design condition were observed in Japan. Confirming the ultimate strength and design safety margin of mechanical components is important for the seismic integrity. This study focused on piping components, and it was one of the most important mechanical components for protecting boundary of coolant. Failure tests of thick-walled piping components for Light Water Reactors (LWRs) described previously in the literature. According to these tests, the failure mode of thick-walled piping components under seismic cyclic loading was low cycle fatigue. However, failure tests have scarcely been performed on thin-walled piping components pressurized at low levels for Fast Breeder Reactors (FBRs). This paper presents dynamic failure tests of thin-walled piping components in FBRs. Based on the test results, the failure mode, the ultimate strength, and the elastic-plastic behavior are discussed.

Study on piping response under multiple excitations; Triple shaking table test of piping having three-supporting anchors

Watakabe, Tomoyoshi; Kaneko, Naoaki*; Aida, Shigekazu*; Otani, Akihito*; Tsukimori, Kazuyuki; Moriizumi, Makoto; Kitamura, Seiji

Dynamics and Design Conference 2013 (D&D 2013) Koen Rombunshu (USB Flash Drive), 8 Pages, 2013/08

The piping in a nuclear power plant is laid across multiple floors of a single building or two buildings, which are supported at many anchors. As the piping is excited by multiple inputs from the supporting anchors during an earthquake, seismic response analysis by multiple excitations is needed to obtain the exact seismic response of the piping. However, few tests involving such multiple excitations have been performed to verify the validity of multiple excitation analysis. To perform rational seismic design and evaluation, it is important to investigate the seismic response by multiple excitations and verify the validity of the analysis method by multiple excitation test. This paper reports on the result of the shaking test using triple uni-axial shaking tables and a 3-dimensional piping model.

Behavior of the energy of vibration failure experiment by using a 2-mass system model

Seki, Hajime*; Fujita, Satoshi*; Minagawa, Keisuke*; Kitamura, Seiji; Watakabe, Tomoyoshi

Dynamics and Design Conference 2013 (D&D 2013) Koen Rombunshu (USB Flash Drive), 8 Pages, 2013/08

When we study the behavior of the pipes during an earthquake, the most important damage doesn't come from the maximal load by itself, but from the accumulation of the fatigue damage caused by the repetition of the cyclic load. Therefore, from the point of view of seismic design evaluation methods, techniques that can quantitatively assess the probability of fatigue failure of mechanical structures are needed. The relationship between failure and energy is evaluated, and examined by focusing on the Energy Balance Method said to be effective as an earthquake response analysis technique in the present. This study carries out failure experiments using 2-mass system model based on Energy Balance Method. Furthermore, we focus on the strain from the vicinity of broken point as local response.