The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

The design of steel energy absorbing restrainers and their incorporation into nuclear power plants for enhanced safety: Volume 2 -- The development of analyses for reactor system piping -- simple systems, complex systems

Lee, Meng-Chi; Penzien, Joseph; Chopra, Anil K.; Suzuki, Kohei; Powell, Graham H.; Wilson, Edward L.; Clough, Ray W.; Row, Dennis G.

UCB/EERC-79/08, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1979-02, 1 vol. (530/D38/1979/v.2)

The objectives and scope of the study are as follows: (1) Review existing procedures for code compliance analysis and identify the changes which would be needed if energy-absorbing restrainers were to be incorporated into piping designs. (2) Carry out fundamental studies of the effects of yielding on the seismic response of piping systems. (3) Perform analyses on typical piping systems to test and compare the analysis procedures and to investigate the effects of energy-absorbing restrainers. The results for several small systems are presented. (4) Develop practical computational procedures for the dynamic analysis of piping systems with yielding restrainers. Two types of analysis have been explored, the first using special purpose techniques which are limited in scope but very efficient computationally, and the second using general purpose techniques which can be applied to a wider range of problems but are less efficient computationally. (5) Present conclusions on the feasibility of using energy-absorbing restrainers.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-79-08.pdf (43 MB)