Nonlinear dynamic analysis of prismatic elements for high-temperature gas-cooled reactor cores

The high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) core consists of several thousand prismatic graphite fuel elements arranged in columns within a prestressed concrete vessel. A major research and development effort was initiated in 1970 at General Atomic Company to study the dynamic response of the HTGR core arrangement to seismic excitation. This paper presents a discussion of the history and some of the results of this effort with respect to the advances made in the development of analytical methods. The computer programs developed to perform the analysis are described, along with certain techniques and the modeling required to utilize them. The purpose of this paper is to describe the nonlinear dynamic analysis techniques employed to analyze the HTGR core. (orig.)