A Feasibility Study of Seismic Isolation for Wolsong Reactor Building

To predict effects of seismic isolation, seismic isolation bearings were applied to the Wolsong reactor building and the analytical study was performed. For this study, the Wolsong reactor building was modeled using lumped masses and beam elements. Design Basis Earthquake with a ground acceleration of 0.2g was applied. And then, the behavior of the isolated structure was compared with that of the unisolated structure. The horizontal response acceleration at the top of the unisolated reactor building was 0.99g, while that of the isolated one was 0.14g(15% damping) and the acceleration response along the height of the structure was constant. The maximum displacement of the unisolated structure was 8.3mm, while that of the isolated structure was 66mm. The application of isolation bearings on the reactor building reduces seismic loads but increases the displacement of the structure on a large scale. Therefore, when using isolation bearings, the reactor building and BOP should be located on a common mat to cover the large displcement.