Seismic Resilience Quantification of Concrete Systems in Canada's Nuclear Infrastructure

地震引发的核灾难可能在全球一级造成毁灭性后果。因此，核部件、系统和结构通常被设计为在指定的设计基础地震下保持其功能，以便执行其预期的安全功能。然而，在2011年日本东北地震和海啸灾难之后，这种结构的地震安全性引起了包括加拿大核安全委员会在内的全球核监管机构的高度关注。这场灾难突出表明，迫切需要确保加拿大的核能基础设施在超出设计基准的地震中具有足够的弹性。根据加拿大保险局委托编写的一份报告，加拿大大部分基础设施将在大地震后遭受重大破坏。该报告估计，如果发生在魁北克市-蒙特利尔-渥太华走廊的破坏性地震，直接损失将超过490亿美元。拟议的研究计划的三个相互关联的重点领域的结构，以开发先进的基于地震的量化工具，加拿大的核基础设施。重点领域I将涉及在模拟不同级别地震危险的准静态循环荷载下测试类似于加拿大核结构中的钢筋混凝土墙。这种墙将被独特地设计成足够厚的辐射屏蔽以及防爆和防火。这一重点领域将产生必要的实验验证，以量化这种墙的滞回响应，这是基于规范的设计和抗震性能评估的关键。重点领域二将包括完整的钢筋混凝土核结构的混合模拟（计算机建模与实时物理测试相结合）。这一重点领域将有助于量化此类厚壁的系统级地震响应，而无需重新创建与结构其余部分相关的（通常非常大的）质量和刚度。重点领域三的目标是利用数字和数据驱动的建模技术，为核结构开发系统级性能预测模型。这些模型将被纳入概率风险评估工具，以促进加拿大核基础设施在超设计基准地震下的复原力量化。加拿大核工业每年创造超过60亿美元的收入，提供超过30，000个直接就业岗位，同时还满足加拿大政府的多项大气排放目标。该行业需要类似于在拟议的研究计划中开发的基于双稳态的量化工具。采用这些工具将为加拿大社区提供自然灾害下的安全基础设施系统，并将利用加拿大的清洁发电概况，大幅减少温室气体排放。

An earthquake-induced nuclear disaster can cause devastating consequences at the global level. As such, nuclear components, systems, and structures are typically designed to maintain their functionality under specified design-basis earthquakes in order to perform their intended safety functions. However, after the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami catastrophe in Japan, the seismic safety of such structures has attracted much attention of nuclear regulators worldwide, including the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. The catastrophe highlighted the urgent need to ensure that Canada's nuclear energy infrastructure is resilient enough under beyond-design-basis earthquakes. According to a report commissioned by the Insurance Bureau of Canada, a major portion of Canada's infrastructure will experience substantial damage following a major earthquake. The report estimates that a realistic damaging earthquake in the Quebec City-Montreal-Ottawa corridor would result in direct losses of more than $49 billion. The three interrelated focus areas of the proposed research program are structured to develop advanced seismic resilience-based quantification tools for Canada's nuclear infrastructure. Focus Area I will involve testing reinforced concrete walls similar to those in Canadian nuclear structures under quasi-static cyclic loading that simulates different levels of seismic hazard. Such walls will be uniquely designed to be thick enough for radiation shielding as well as blast and fire protection. This focus area will yield the necessary experimental validation to quantify the hysteretic response of such walls that is key for both code-based design and seismic performance assessment. Focus Area II will include hybrid simulation (computer modelling combined with real-time physical testing) of complete reinforced concrete nuclear structures. This focus area will facilitate quantifying the system-level seismic response of such thick walls without the need to recreate the (often very large) mass and stiffness associated with the rest of the structure. Focus Area III will aim at developing system-level performance predictive models for nuclear structures using numerical and data-driven modelling techniques. These models will be integrated into probabilistic risk assessment tools to facilitate resilience quantification of Canada's nuclear infrastructure under beyond-design-basis earthquakes. The Canadian nuclear industry generates revenues of over $6 billion every year and provides over 30,000 direct jobs, while also meeting several Canadian government atmospheric emission objectives. The industry is in need of resilience-based quantification tools similar to those to be developed in the proposed research program. Adopting such tools will provide Canadian communities safe infrastructure systems under natural hazards and also will capitalize on Canada's clean electricity generation profile to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.