Structural simulation of a nuclear containment using general purpose shell elements, applying a design pressure

Abstract

Using a specially formulated finite element without a specific shell theory, that is, applicable to any plate / sheet situation, modeling and applying the corresponding design pressure to a nuclear containment type structure was performed, also modeling all the corresponding tubes penetrations, as well as foundations and internal construction. Simplified models were first developed in different situations to obtain reference values. The results obtained show stress values (membrane + bending + peak) over the entire assembly, without the need to run sub-models, in a calculation time of approx. 3200 seconds / 2 Cores for a mesh of approx. 180k nodes.