Evaluation of strain levels in the IFSF rack

摘要

An evaluation has been performed on strain levels determined for the IFSF fuel storage rack for seismic loading. The storage rack had been previously analyzed by a consulting company, Advanced Engineering Consultants (AEC), who reported significant strain levels in several members of the rack. The purpose for the study conducted herein was to refine the method for calculating strain levels, and then to assess the acceptability of the refined strain values. This was accomplished by making a modification to AEC's model to more realistically represent plastic behavior in all locations where material yields. An analysis was performed where this modified model was subjected to the same seismic loadings as applied in AEC's analysis. It was expected that the more realistic representation of plastic behavior in the modified model would result in reduced maximum calculated strains for the rack. Results of the analysis showed that the more realistic representation of plastic behavior in rack members did reduce the calculated maximum strains from those reported by AEC. These modified strains were evaluated for acceptability according to ductility criteria of the governing standard (i.e. ANSI/AISC N690-1994, as specified by the project Criteria Application Document). This evaluation showed that the strains meet these acceptance criteria. The analysis described herein was performed only to investigate this issue. AEC's analysis stands as the analysis of record for the rack.