Premium
Measurement of dynamic response and failure of pipework
Author(s) -
Beaney E M
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
strain
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.477
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1475-1305
pISSN - 0039-2103
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-1305.1991.tb00762.x
Subject(s) - conservatism , work (physics) , nuclear power , limit (mathematics) , structural engineering , lead (geology) , catastrophic failure , reliability engineering , nuclear engineering , engineering , forensic engineering , computer science , mechanical engineering , materials science , geology , mathematics , physics , composite material , mathematical analysis , geomorphology , politics , political science , nuclear physics , law
Pipework in nuclear power stations is designed to withstand the effects of earthquakes. The current methods of design are known to be very conservative and lead to the inclusion of large numbers of pipework restraints. These restraints are only included to limit stresses in the unlikely event of an earthquake but they can, under some circumstances, increase stresses during comparatively frequent thermal transients and thus their unnecessary inclusion is undesirable. With the ultimate objective of reducing aseismic design conservatism the experimental work, described in this paper, has been conducted at Berkeley Nuclear Laboratories (BNL) to investigate the response and failure of pipework under high levels of dynamic excitation. The initial work was aimed at response prediction, but it is now clear that the improvement of failure criteria is a preferred route to reduce design conservatism. The measurement of high strains and dynamic yield performance of materials has necessitated the development of novel measurement techniques which have wider application in other areas. This experimental work is now finished, and the results are being used to support a change in the design codes.