Numerical study on seismic response of the reactor coolant pump in Advanced Passive Pressurized Water Reactor

The reactor coolant pump in the Advanced Passive Pressurized Water Reactor is a kind of nuclear canned-motor pump. The pump is classified as Seismic Category I, which must function normally during the Safe Shutdown Earthquake. When the nuclear power plant is located in seismically active region, the seismic response of the reactor coolant pump may become very important for the safety assessment of the whole nuclear power plant. In this article, an artificial accelerogram is generated. The response spectrum of the artificial accelerogram fits well with the design acceleration spectrum of the Safe Shutdown Earthquake. By applying the finite element modeling method, the dynamic finite element models of the rotor and stator in the reactor coolant pump are created separately. The rotor and stator are coupled by the journal bearings and the annular flow between the rotor and stator. Then the whole dynamic model of the reactor coolant pump is developed. Time domain analysis which uses the improved state-space Newmark method of a direct time integration scheme is carried out to investigate the response of the reactor coolant pump under the horizontal seismic load. The results show that the reactor coolant pump responds differently in the direction of the seismic load and in the perpendicular direction. During the Safe Shutdown Earthquake, the displacement response, the shear force, the moment and the journal bearing reaction forces in the reactor coolant pump are analyzed.