Seismic stability of two interconnected steel structures freely standing on the floor

Nuclear fuel fabrication and reprocessing facilities have glove boxes that are extensively used as a primary containment for radiological material. These equipment are maintained under negative pressure using ventilation system and possess high degree of leak tightness. Sometimes, they are used as a standalone structure and many a times, interconnected to each other. Normally, they are not anchored to the floor, which raises serious concerns about their seismic performance. To check seismic stability of the glove boxes and evaluate safety margins in design, tri directional fullscale shake table experiments of two interconnected glove boxes had been carried out. Two configurations were compared; in first, both the boxes were connected through flexible linkage (material transfer tunnel) and in second both were rigidly connected via structural members. Objective of experiments was to observe effects of seismic excitation on leak tightness, structural integrity and overall stability of two interconnected glove boxes. Subsequently, nonlinear finite element analysis was carried out to establish and develop analysis methodology. Experimental results were utilized for model benchmarking. Furthermore, a numerical method was developed to determine safe upper bounds on sliding displacements. This paper highlighted critical findings emanated from experimental results and examined their effect on seismic stability. Enhanced seismic stability in case of rigidly connected boxes was observed. Rigid body motions (mainly sliding and low magnitude rocking) dominated the response with very limited effect of elastic motions. Methodology used for modelling and analyzing glove boxes under seismic loading using finite element methods was also presented.