A personal computer code for seismic evaluations of nuclear power plant facilities

In the process of review and evaluation of licensing issues related to nuclear power plants, it is essential to understand the behavior of seismic loading, foundation and structural properties and their impact on the overall structural response. In most cases, such knowledge could be obtained by using simplified engineering models which, when properly implemented, can capture the essential parameters describing the physics of the problem. Such models do not require execution on large computer systems and could be implemented through a personal computer (PC) based capability. Recognizing the need for a PC software package that can perform structural response computations required for typical licensing reviews, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission sponsored the development of a PC operated computer software package CARES (Computer Analysis for Rapid Evaluation of Structures) system. This development was undertaken by Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) during FY's 1988 and 1989. A wide range of computer programs and modeling approaches are often used to justify the safety of nuclear power plants. It is often difficult to assess the validity and accuracy of the results submitted by various utilities without developing comparable computer solutions. Taken this into consideration, CARES is designed as an integrated computational system which can perform rapid evaluations of structural behavior and examine capability of nuclear power plant facilities, thus CARES may be used by the NRC to determine the validity and accuracy of analysis methodologies employed for structural safety evaluations of nuclear power plants. CARES has been designed to operate on a PC, have user friendly input/output interface, and have quick turnaround. This paper describes the various features which have been implemented into the seismic module of CARES version 1.0