Design of Steel Energy Absorbing Restrainers and Their Incorporation into Nuclear Power Plants for Enhanced Safety. Volume 4, Review of Current Uses of Energy Absorbing Devices

摘要

A survey of energy-absorbing devices that could be used as restraints for secondary nuclear power plant piping and equipment systems is presented. A great many such devices have been developed in recent years due to interest in increasing the impact resistance of automobiles and the damage resistance (crashworthiness) or passenger compartments in light aircraft. The impact resistance devices have been designed for monotonic loading with the main criterion being minimal decleration within the physical constraint imposed by the maximum allowable stroke. For aircraft applications, a further consideration is weight and thus energy absorption per unit weight should be optimized. Although neither absorption capacity per unit weight nor minimization of deceleration are critical considerations in designing energy absorbers to restrain pipes from damage due to seismic attack, it is useful to consider designs that have been developed for impact applications as it may lead to design configurations which would be useful in piping systems. The energy-absorbing devices described in this report have been classified into four groups according to energy-absorbing mechanism: (1) plastic deformation of metals, (2) extrusion, (3) friction, and (4) metal cutting. (ERA citation 04:046676)