In this study, dynamic characteristics and seismic capacity of the nuclear power plant piping system are evaluated by model test results using multi-platform shake table. The model is 21.2 m long and consists of straight pipes, elbows, and reducers. The stainless steel pipe diameters are 60.3 mm (2 in.) and 88.9 mm (3 in.) and the system was assembled in accordance with ASME code criteria. The dynamic characteristics such as natural frequency, damping and acceleration responses of the piping system were estimated using the measured acceleration, displacement and strain data. The natural frequencies of the specimen were not changed significantly before and after the testing and the failure and leakage of the piping system was not observed until the final excitation. The damping ratio was estimated in the range of 3.13 ~ 4.98 % and it is found that the allowable stress(345 MPa) according to ASME criteria is 2.5 times larger than the measured maximum stress(138 MPa) of the piping system even under the maximum excitation level of this test.

In this study, for the assesment of the seismic performance of a riser pipe with groove joints, in-plane cyclic loading tests were conducted using the pipe installation method suggested by NFPA13 and the allowable side sway of KBC. In addition, elbow and tee, which are weak parts of piping system, were separated and component test was performed under the same conditions.

In this study, the shake table tests were performed for seismic performance evaluation of fire protection riser pipes. The specimen was subjected to a tri-axial time history shake table test with acceleration levels corresponding to the 0.5g and 0.7g ZPA design level.