Experimental Investigations on Seismic Behavior of Post-Installed Anchorages in Nuclear Power Plants


Abstract eng:
Anchorages with post-installed anchors are commonly used in nuclear power plants to connect non-structural components such as piping systems to concrete structures. For nuclear safety related fastenings, particular requirements concerning their load and displacement behavior are demanded to avoid failure or loss of functionality of certain components. During an earthquake, the anchorage has to transfer the seismic loads resulting from interactions between the structural and non-structural elements, while cracks open and close in the concrete structure in which the anchor is installed. In existing qualification guidelines, the seismic performance of anchors is evaluated by means of experimental load and crack cycling tests on single anchors. In order to investigate the behavior of anchor groups supporting non-structural components under real earthquake conditions, dynamic interactions between the coupled system consisting of concrete structure, post-installed anchors with anchor plate and component have to be considered. Within the scope of a research project, large-scale experiments were carried out on a 2-anchor group connecting a piping system to a concrete slab. The test specimens were subjected to seismic loading by an electrodynamic shaker mounted on the pipe and representative cycling crack widths in the concrete member. Two different types of undercut anchors qualified for application in German nuclear power plants were tested. This paper presents a detailed description of the specially designed test setup and testing methodology considering realistic earthquake excitations. The results of a total of ten conducted tests provide information on the load-displacement behavior of the anchorage at different crack widths and under various load levels. Anchors subjected to simultaneous load and crack cycling experience continuously increasing displacements. This effect becomes more pronounced in particular for large crack widths. Residual displacements of the anchors may lead to impacts in case of tension-compression loading on the anchorage. However, the anchor displacement performance observed in the presented tests agrees fairly well with results obtained on isolated single anchors.

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Conference Title:
Conference Title:
16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering
Conference Venue:
Santiago (CL)
Conference Dates:
2017-01-09 / 2017-01-13
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Text je chráněný podle autorského zákona č. 121/2000 Sb.



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 Record created 2017-01-18, last modified 2017-01-18


Original version of the author's contribution as presented on USB, paper 797.:
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