Seismic analysis of the ITER Blanket Remote Handling System

Seismic analysis of the ITER Blanket Remote Handling System (BRHS) was carried out to assess its structural integrity against a safe shutdown earthquake. Evaluating the dynamic response of the system is of essential importance because the BRHS has various configurations with the flexible articulated rail system and vehicle manipulators that move along the rail. In addition, the floor response spectrum in the vertical direction at the equatorial ports has a steep peak at ∼8 Hz due to dynamic amplification of the building therefore understanding the natural modes and frequencies is indispensable to verify the structural design. This paper reports the seismic analysis of the BRHS during blanket module handling operation. A dynamic global FE model analysis to specify the unfavorable configurations of the system via parametric study, and local FE model analyses to verify the structural strength of critical components using interface loads obtained from the global analysis were done. The seismic resistance of the BRHS was studied and the structural design confirmed. (author)