COUPLED LATERAL-TORSIONAL RESPONSE OF EQUIPMENT MOUNTED IN CANDU NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS.

The seismic environment of a piece of equipment located in a nuclear power plant is significantly affected by the analytical model which is used to represent the physical reactor structure. In this paper, a coupled lateral torsional model (CLTM) is developed as a modification of the uncoupled lateral torsional model (ULTM) by including the torsional degree of freedom for each mass point and taking into consideration the effect of eccentricities between the centers of mass and rigidity at each floor level.