Dynamic Testing of Nuclear Power Plant Structures — An Evaluation

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) evaluated the application of system identification techniques to the dynamic testing of nuclear power plant structures and subsystems. These experimental techniques involve exciting a structure and measuring, digitizing, and processing the time-history motions that result. The data can be compared to parameters calculated using finite element or other models of the test systems to validate the model and to verify the seismic analysis. This report summarizes work in three main areas: (1) analytical qualification of a set of computer programs developed at LLNL to extract model parameters from the time histories; (2) examintion of the feasibility of safely exciting nuclear power plant structures and accurately recording the resulting time-history power plant structures and accurately recording the resulting time-history motions; (3) study of how the model parameters that are extracted from the data be used to evaluate structural integrity and analyze nuclear power plants.