Seismic behavior of composite concrete floor without earthquake design provisions part 2: numerical analyses

Abstract : In some existing nuclear facilities in France, composite concrete floors were designed to support only gravity loads. Therefore those slabs were constructed without earthquake design provisions. In order to assess the structural behaviour and seismic margins of such slabs with respect to construction codes used in France for existing buildings, CEA and IRSN have launched a research program which is divided into two parts (1) experimental tests performed on two full scale identical models, (2) numerical analyses of the test results using the finite element method. The experimental program has been described in a separate paper (Part 1 Experimental program) in this conference. This second paper is dedicated to the numerical investigations carried out mainly after the experimental campaigns. Using the finite element code Cast3M developed at CEA/Saclay, 3D finite element modelling for the test models is performed. Both linear elastic and nonlinear analyses are conducted under static (for Model-1) and dynamic (for Model-2) loads and the results are compared with the experimental results. A new robust concrete model recently developed in CEA is used for the nonlinear analyses. In performing the dynamic analyses, a finite element model of the shaking table is also incorporated to account for its coupling effect with the test model.