Research and Development of Viscous Fluid Dampers for Improvement of Seismic Resistance of Thermal Power Plants: Part 5 — Influence of Damper Properties on Lifetime

In 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake that is the largest earthquake ever observed in Japan occurred. The earthquake had large energy, long duration and many aftershocks, and coal-fired thermal power plants were damaged by the earthquake [1]. Boiler structures in coal-fired thermal power plants are generally high-rise structures, and boilers are simply suspended from the top of the support structures in order to allow thermal expansion, so boilers easily vibrate [2]. In order to suppress vibration of boilers during earthquakes, stoppers are generally set between boilers and support structures. The stoppers are made of steel, and dissipate vibration energy by plastic deformation. However aseismic requirements for thermal power plants have been increased as a result of the Great East Japan Earthquake. Thus authors have developed a vibration control damper for coal-fired power plants. The damper is set instead of conventional stopper. Construction of the damper is similar to oil dampers, but inner fluid is viscous fluid. In PVP 2017, the basic performance of the proposed damper was presented [3–5]. In this paper, influence of damper properties on lifetime of the damper was investigated by seismic response analyses. In addition, lifetime of dampers for long period and long duration earthquake waves were investigated by seismic response analyses.