A structural design and analysis of a piping system including seismic load

The structural design/analysis of a piping system at a nuclear fuel facility is used to investigate some aspects of current design procedures. Specifically the effect of using various stress measures including ASME Boiler ampersand Pressure Vessel (B ampersand PV) Code formulas is evaluated. It is found that large differences in local maximum stress values may be calculated depending on the stress criterion used. However, when the global stress maximum for the entire system are compared the differences are much smaller, being nevertheless, for some load combinations, of the order of 50 percent. The effect of using an Equivalent Static Method (ESM) analysis is also evaluated by comparing its results with those obtained from a Response Spectrum Method (RSM) analysis with the modal responses combined by using the absolute summation (ABS), by using the square root of the squares (SRSS), and by using the 10 percent method (10PC). It is shown that for a spectrum amplification factor (equivalent static coefficient greater than unity) of at least 1.32 must be used in the current application of the ESM analysis in order to obtain results which are conservative in all aspects relative to an RSM analysis based on ABS. However, it appears that an adequate design would be obtained from the ESM approach even without the use of a spectrum amplification factor. 7 refs., 3 figs., 3 tabs