Nuclear Containment Mat Design Concepts

The design of the foundation mat for a reactor containment vessel must consider soil-structure interaction. The impact of this interaction on the mat thickness and reinforcing is a function of the relative stiffness of the mat and the supporting soil. A slab on Winkler foundations solution with consideration of mat uplift is used to evaluate the sensitivity of the foundation mat design to a range of soil spring constants. It is established that the mat bending moments and soil bearing pressures are the keys to determining the preliminary mat design; therefore, these are plotted versus mat thickness for a range of soil spring constants. These results are presented as working graphs that can be used for preliminary mat design for a range of soil stiffnesses.