Year
2015
Abstract
A gantry crane is used to move welded canisters containing spent fuel to concrete casks for long term storage. The accelerations determined from soil structure evaluations are applied to the base of the crane to evaluate the crane response to the seismic loading. Applied seismic accelerations have peak accelerations of 0.88 g’s. Due to the impact of the load with crane components and due to the motion of restraining cables, the dynamic evaluation was performed using an explicit finite element methodology. Additional design challenges were encountered due to the requirement by ASME NOG-1 for the components to remain elastic during a Safe Shutdown Earthquake. To reduce the member loading, viscous dampers were introduced into the design. The maximum response is identified by solving a series of problems to account for the tolerances in the dampers, the different crane positions and crane mountings. Results of the solutions are presented confirming the crane stability to maintain the load under severe seismic loading.