Application of the Variational Theory of Complex Rays to the determination of shock induced vibration of a reinforced concrete structure

Security and safety are crucial aspects in the design of nuclear engineering structures. Civil engineering design and the qualification of materials to dynamic loads must consider the accelerations which they undergo. These accelerations could integrate not only seismic activity but also shaking movements consecutive to aircraft impacts with higher cutoff frequency. Current methodologies for handling such a shock in the calculation stage are based on transient analyzes using classical finite element methods associated with explicit numerical schemes or projection on modal basis. In both cases, to represent in a meaningful way a mediumfrequency content, a fine mesh is required which is hardly compatible with the size of models of the civil engineering structures. In order to extend the current industrial methodologies and to allow a better representation of the behavior of the structure in the medium-frequency range, an approach coupling a temporal and non-linear analysis of the impact area with a frequency approach for the treatment of the resulting shaking with the Variational Theory of Complex Rays (VTCR) has been developed [1]. The aim is to use the computational efficiency of the implemented strategy and to include the medium frequency range to calculate the nuclear structures response to an aircraft impact.