Study of ultimate seismic response and fragility evaluation of nuclear power building using nonlinear three-dimensional finite element model

The probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) is important for nuclear power buildings in Japan because the risk of the occurrence of seismic ground motions beyond the design assumption cannot be denied. In this paper, the building fragility of the seismic PSA was evaluated using a high accuracy analysis model (three-dimensional nonlinear FEM building model considering soil-structure interaction and basemat uplift behavior). First, the response analyses were conducted increasing the input acceleration up to 3500 Gal, until the damage of the building reached the ultimate condition. The damage of the building was estimated from the shear strain, the axial stress, and the consumed strain energy of the shear walls. Then, the influence on the response given by the vertical ground motion and the basemat uplift was evaluated. In addition, considering the shear destruction of the web wall and compressive crash of the flange wall as the fracture modes, the building fragility was evaluated. As a result, it was shown that the investigated method is efficient for more accurate seismic PSA estimation. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.