Earthquake Analysis of Pipe Supports in Nuclear Power Plants

Abstract: This is the resulting rapport from a master thesis in the field of structural analysis, with a focus on earthquake engineering. In this project are pipe supports’ impacts on seismic design analysed. This is done by modelling a building, pipe supports and a pipe system in two different computer softwares. One of them is commonly used for design of pipes at nuclear plants, and the other has applications in many fields of mechanics. Earthquake data for seismic design at nuclear plants in Sweden is used as input and different kinds of analysis are performed. Output from the two softwares is compared to see how the responses differ and if it is related to the pipe supports. The eigenmodes and forces calculated differ between the two softwares. The difference in eigenmodes and therefore also the forces may be explained by modelling issues with the pipe bends. However, the modelling technique for the pipe supports does not seem to impact the result.