Analysis of Seismic Response of a Polar Crane in Nuclear Power Plant

The seismic response is analyzed for a polar crane used in nuclear power plant.A 3-D finite element model for the polar crane structure is developed using the ANSYS codes.Based on the modal analysis,the seismic response of the crane structure is calculated to an input of the seismic spectrum at the plant floor,where the polar crane is installed and operates.The results show that the crane is generally safe from the seismic input in terms of the structure strength,whereas the structural responses in the horizontal direction are large due to the horizontal seismic input,as the first order natural frequency of lateral bending of the structure is close to the frequencies where the peaks of the seismic spectrum occurs in the horizontal direction.