Generation of floor spectra compatible time histories for equipment seismic qualification in nuclear power plants

This paper proposes a procedure for generating floor response spectra compatible time histories used for equipment seismic qualification in nuclear power plants. From the 84th percentile power spectrum density function of an earthquake ensemble of four randomly generated time history motions, a statistically equivalent time history can be obtained by converting the power spectrum density function from the frequency domain into the time domain. With minor modification, if needed, the converted time history will satisfy both the spectral and the power spectrum density enveloping criteria, as required by the USNRC per Revision 2 of the Standard Review Plan, Section 3.7.1. Step-by-step generating procedures and two numerical examples are presented to illustrate the applications of the methodology. (author)