Analysis of the structural girders of a crane for the license renewal of a BWR Nuclear Power Plant

This paper presents the evaluation of the Cumulative Usage Factor (CUF) of the structural girders of an overhead traveling bridge crane. This type of crane is located inside the reactor building of a BWR Nuclear Power Plant. It is important to mention that this analysis complies with the requirements for the renewal of an operating license of a Nuclear Power Plant. The Finite Element Method (FEM) was done with the ANSYS code. The alternating stresses were determined with the equations of Goodman, Gerber, Morrow and Walker. The Miner rule was used to estimate the CUF projected to 60 years. The results showed two critical cases in the bridge girders. These are the test of the crane at the end of an outage and the handling of waste casks. The CUF was calculated for 60 years of operation and its range is between 0.003 to 0.016. This complies with the 10 CFR 54.21 (c) (1) (ii) standard. It shows that the CUF remains less than one. This ensures that the integrity of the structural girders is maintained during an extended period of the operating license. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.