Seismic stability of a standalone glove box structure

In a nuclear fuel cycle facility, radiotoxic materials are being handled in freestanding leak tight enclosures called glove boxes (GBs). These glove boxes act as a primary confinement for the radiotoxic materials. Glove boxes are designed as per codal requirements for class I component. They are designed to withstand extreme level of earthquake loading with a return period of 10,000 years. To evaluate seismic performance of the glove box, there is a need to check the stability (sliding and overturning), structural integrity (stresses and strains) and leak tightness under earthquake loading. Extensive shake table experiments were conducted on a single standalone glove box. Actual laboratory conditions were simulated during testing to check the response. extensive shake table testing, glove box structure was also analyzed using finite element (FE) software. Detailed three-dimensional model of glove box structure was developed and analyzed using nonlinear time history method. It was observed that finite element methods could be utilized to accurately predict dynamic response of glove box structure. This paper discusses the details and results of shake table testing and methodology used for modelling and analysing freestanding glove box structure under seismic loading. In addition, simplified numerical procedure, developed using energy conservation principle is applied to estimate approximate sliding displacement of the glove box.