Buckling of steel containment shells. Task 1a. Dynamic response and buckling of offshore power systems' floating nuclear plant containment vessel. Final report, 25 August 1980-30 September 1982

Static and dynamic analyses of the steel containment vessel of the Offshore Power Systems' (OPS) floating nuclear plant were conducted with use of several computer programs developed at the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company (LMSC). These analyses were conducted as part of Task 1, Evaluation of Two Steel Containment Designs. The main purpose was to evaluate the OPS containment shell with respect to buckling. The report is divided into two main sections, the first giving results from modal vibration and linear dynamic response analyses of the OPS containment neglecting and including the large equipment hatch and the second giving results from buckling analyses for a variety of models. It is concluded that inclusion of the equipment hatch and its attachments does not significantly affect the dynamic response of the OPS vessel to the loading history provided by OPS. Good agreement is obtained for static stress and buckling predictions from PANDA, BOSOR4, BOSOR5, and STAGSC-1 for cases in which more than one of these computer programs can be applied to the same configuration and loading