Practical application of current fluid/structure interaction technology to the design and analysis to BWR containment vessels

The containment systems for all BWR reactors consist of a drywell which contains the reactor and a wetwell which contains a suppression pool. The wetwell structure and the suppression pool are clearly condidates for the application of current - if not state-of-the-art - fluid/structure interaction technology. The original design of the early BWR containments gave little consideration to the pool hydrodynamic loads themselves, to say nothing of the fluid/structure interaction aspects of the phenomena. In later years, loads were specified to act on the walls of the suppression chamber, but it was left to the designer as to how he would account for the mass of water within the suppression pool. The state-of-the-art is rapidly approaching the point where it will be possible to consider the pool coupled to the structure with a pressure source acting in the pool. However, one must exercise caution in order to make practical use of this developing technology. (orig.)