A MULTI-STEP APPROACH FOR EVALUATION OF PIPE IMPACT EFFECTS

A methodology has been developed and applied to the requalification of the high-energy piping at the Santa Maria de Garona Nuclear Power Plant in Spain. It provides techniques for evaluation of pipe-whip and jet effects. The methodology developed breaks down the evaluation effort into various levels of decreasing conservatism and increasing complexity and cost. Higher evaluation levels are applied only to interactions where lower levels fail and where there is a reasonable expectation that more realistic analysis might demonstrate acceptability. The lower levels of evaluation are described in this paper for the pipe-on-pipe impact interactions, targets other than pipes are relatively straightforward.