Nonlinear Analysis Method Research of Multi-Bolt Connection Structure of Primary Equipment Support

The main equipments of the reactor coolant system include the steam generator, the reactor coolant pump, the pressurizer and the reactor coolant loop. The reactor coolant system is equipped with a steam generator for each of the two loops, and pressurizer is connected with the hot leg of loop 1 using the surge line. The main loop support system design of AP series greatly simplifies the RCS loop support system. Pressurizer supports consist of columns, lower lateral supports, upper lateral support and ring girder, and the steam generator supports consist of columns, lower lateral supports, upper lateral supports and intermediate lateral supports. Ring Girder of pressurizer consists of two semi-circular girders, vertical supports and splice connection of girder and the two half-ring girders are connected with splice connection using 11 bolts. The steam generator upper lateral support is mainly composed of bracket, snubber, pin and ubar and the ubar and the steam generator is connected via 16 bolts in the initial design. These bolts are to ensure the support junction can withstand the force and torque of various conditions of the reactor coolant system, which are important components of the main equipment support. There are large numbers of bolts in the splice connection of ring girder and ubar of upper lateral support of steam generator, and the bolts load was calculated using the uniform method in the general engineering design and analysis. During the design review it was found that the bolts load was uneven and in order to determine the non-uniformity of the bolts the finite element method was used to calculate the load on each bolt, and the resulting stress ratio was greater than 1 did not meet the requirements of the ASME Code. In this paper, the calculation method was studied and the design improvements for parts was made using the nonlinear analysis method to meet the requirements of ASME Code in the case of master supports of main equipment supports have been made good. At the same time the impact of bolts load because of gap was studied. It had very good economic benefits. The calculation and research of this paper show that the finite element method can calculate the force of bolts finely, and can get a more reasonable result than the empirical formula. It can be referred to when the multi-bolt connection structure needs to be refined, such as flange connection of important equipments and valves and flange and bolt design optimization.