Sloshing of Water in Torus Pressure-Suppression Pool of Boiling Water Reactors under Earthquake Ground Motions

摘要

This report presents an analytical and experimental investigation into the sloshing of water in torus tanks under horizontal earthquake ground motions. This study was motivated because of the use of torus tanks for pressure-suppression pools in Boiling Water Reactors. Such a pressure-suppression pool would typically have 80 ft and 140 ft inside and outside diameters, a 30 ft diameter section, and a water depth of 15 ft. A general finite element analysis was developed for all axisymmetric tanks and a computer program was written to obtain time-history plots of sloshing displacements of water and dynamic pressures. Tests were carried out on a 1/60th scale model under sinusoidal as well as simulated earthquake ground motions. Tests and analytical results regarding natural frequencies, surface water displacements, and dynamic pressures were compared and a good agreement was found within the range of displacements studied. The computer program gave satisfactory results within a maximum range of sloshing displacements in the full-size prototype of 30 in. which is greater than the value obtained under the full intensity of the El Centro earthquake (N-S component 1940). The range of linear behavior was studied experimentally by subjecting the torus model to increasing intensities of the El Centro earthquake. (ERA citation 04:051685)