A Parametric Study for the Seismic Response Analysis of a Nuclear Reactor Building by Using a Three-Dimensional Finite Element Model

Research and development of three-dimensional vibration simulation technologies for nuclear facilities is one mission of the Center for Computational Science and e-Systems of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA). A seismic intensity of upper 5 was observed in the area of High-Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) at the Oarai Research and Development Center of JAEA during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. In this paper, we report a seismic response analysis of this earthquake using three-dimensional models of the HTTR building. We performed a parametric study by using uncertainty parameters. Furthermore, we examined the variation in the response result for the uncertainty parameters to create a valid 3D finite element model.Copyright © 2016 by ASME