Feasibility study on strain-based seismic design criteria for nuclear components

In this paper, the feasibility study to develop strain-based seismic design criteria applicable for the components of nuclear power plants are carried out as an alternative rule to the current stress-based criteria. To do this, two acceptance criteria are investigated through the detailed example of an application for the surge line nozzles in a nuclear steam supply system, which are known as one of the seismic fragile components in nuclear power plants. These strain-based seismic design criteria are primarily to prevent two types of failure modes, such as a ductile fracture and a cyclic fatigue-induced damage due to continuous large amplitude cyclic loads during seismic event. Through the example problem, the required procedures are described step-by-step with calculations of an accumulated plastic strain, triaxiality factor by the elasto-plastic seismic analysis using the finite element method. For a precise inelastic seismic analysis, the Chaboche kinematic and Voce isotropic hardening material parameters are identified by the test data and used for an inelastic material model. The results by the strain-based criteria are compared with those by the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) stress-based design criteria for a service level D limits. From the study, it is expected that the strain-based seismic design method investigated in this paper will be beneficial for the nuclear components, especially when the design basis earthquakes are large enough to cause severe plastic strains at a critical location.