Background: Spent fuel racks are important facilities to store the spent fuel which are freestanding in the spent fuel pool.The response of racks to seismic load is highly nonlinear and involves a complex combination of motions: sliding

impact

twisting and turning.Purpose: An analysis method should be built to accurately replicate these nonlinear responses.Methods: The whole pool multi-rack FEA model was developed and time history analysis was performed which contains the consideration of effect of sliding

impact and friction and the fluid structure interaction effect.Results: The analysis results such as displacement and force under seismic loads were obtained.Conclusions: The method can be used to the seismic analysis for spent fuel racks.