Evaluation of Restrainer's Influence on Stacked Block Structure

The core of a VHTR is a stacked structure of graphite blocks. To evaluate the behavioral style and the integrity of a stacked structure subject to a seismic load, a modeling technique to represent the contact surface characteristics between a block and a block support structure and among the blocks is necessary. However, it is difficult to deal with a realistic seismic load and to figure out the characteristics of a block's behavior since it has a very complicated time history. For the development of a seismic analysis methodology, a preliminary evaluation of one single block and single column stacked block structure under harmonic excitation had been performed. But, the evaluation for a restrainer was not included in this previous study though a restrainer exists in actual design to prevent a lateral motion of stacked blocks. In this study, the influence of restrainer and pin/socket components on a single column stacked block subject to a harmonic excitation is evaluated