Flat plate chord tests are one experimental method used to investigate how fluid/structure interaction (FSI) effects modify the impulsive loading in nuclear reactor pressure suppression pools. This analytical study examines the applicability of using a flexible flat plate in an otherwise rigid shell to model dynamic pool wall response in a flexible shell pressure suppression torus. Bubble pressures varying by a factor of seven are used as input to two-dimensional finite-element models. Boundary response to various plate and shell thicknesses are compared on the basis of equivalent natural frequency. Results indicate the qualitative flat plate response compares well with the flexible shell but absolute pressures vary significantly and nonconservatively.

The TMX Supermodel is an attempt to synthesize all presently known experimental observations and theoretical scaling laws concerning particle and energy losses into a comprehensive zero-dimensional description of plasma confinement in the center cell and plugs of TMX. A list of important loss processes and physical effects included in the present state of evolution of the supermodel is given.

A regional-scale data base, consisting of wind and temperature data for June and July of 1977, was developed for the greater San Francisco Bay Area and eastward to the Central Valley. Continuous meteorological measurements were made in the area of a windy pass (Patterson Pass) 3 km east of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. This area was chosen because of its complex terrain and importance as a downwind topographic feature affecting the dispersal of possible accidental atmospheric releases from the Laboratory and as an area of high wind-energy potential. The results of this study provided the following: (1) a data base, including over 50 stations for use in numerical wind-field regional-scale-model validation; (2) characterization of summer sea breese oscillations of approx. 6 and 12 days (this analysis is useful in calculating wind-power persistence and in understanding summer sea-breeze mechanisms in the Bay Area); and (3) successful application of an optical space-averaging wind sensor over a 1-km path across a pass to provide long-path averaged data more suitable for regional, numerical wind-field models with kilometre-size grid elements.