Investigation of steel containment buckling from dynamic loads

Buckling of free-standing nuclear steel containment buildings from dynamic base excitation was investigated in a combined experimental/numerical program. A polycarbonate scale model of a containment building was excited with scaled earthquake transients and single-frequency harmonic transients to determine the peak base acceleration levels required to induce buckling. Buckling was identified using recorded signals from strain gages and accelerometers, with high-speed video records, and by audibility. Experimental results are compared with numerical results obtained using a freezing-in-time technique. The results are preliminary since several more tests are to be performed. However, the limited data obtained indicate that the freezing-in-time technique approximates the required acceleration levels reasonably well, although not conservatively. Additional experiments are described that will take containment asymmetries into account, as well as use instrumentation that will provide more accurate measures of the occurrence of buckling