Seismic isolation of pool-type tanks for the storage of nuclear spent fuel assemblies

Abstract Seismic isolation of pool-type nuclear spent fuel storage tanks requires careful investigation of dynamic behavior of the fluid–structure–isolator interaction system to satisfy the requirements of safety functions and the prevention of nuclear criticality. This paper presents the investigation, results and discussions on the seismic design considerations of isolated pool-type tanks for the storage of nuclear spent fuel assemblies. A three-dimensional boundary element-finite element method is presented for the analysis of the fluid–structure–isolator systems in time domain. Scaled model tests were performed to verify the numerical method and to study the dynamic behavior of isolated pool-type storage tanks. Important factors affecting the dynamic behavior of tanks with a fixed base are further investigated as is the case for isolated tanks using base isolators with different mechanical properties. The base isolators are the high damping rubber-bearing type and are modeled using a bilinear analysis model. Based on the numerical analysis and experimental results, some conclusions and discussions on the design considerations for isolated storage tanks are presented. In general, it is shown that careful selection of mechanical properties of the isolators with a certain lower limit on the effective frequency can guarantee the reduction of the dynamic responses of the storage tanks and the enhancement of the stability of stored spent fuel assemblies against earthquake excitations.