Seismic Performance of Industrial Component Supporting Steel Structures – Past Damages, Current Design Practice and Recent Experimental Tests

Abstract

Past earthquakes showcased the vulnerability of industrial facilities equipped with complex process technologies, when serious damage of equipment caused an expensive loss of production and release of hazardous substances in facilities posed a danger to society and the environment. Nevertheless, the design of industrial plants is not properly addressed in current codes and guidelines, as they do not consider typical characteristics such as the dynamic interaction between supporting structure and supported components and thus the effect of seismic response of installations on the response of the structure and vice versa. Many more of such specific characteristics exist, which are apparently different to regular, building-like structures and demand for a different handling of industrial structures and components. The incomplete normative situation for the seismic design of industrial facilities was the starting point for the execution of the SPIF project (Seismic Performance of Multi-Component Systems in Special Risk Industrial Facilities) within the framework of the European H2020 - SERA funding scheme (Seismology and Earthquake Engineering Research Infrastructure Alliance for Europe). The current paper sheds a light on following aspects: (i) seismic design and particularities of industrial steel structures; (ii) seismic performance and failure modes of industrial steel structures during past earthquakes; (iii) the current situation concerning existing seismic design codes tailored to industrial structures and the obvious need for such guidelines; (iv) brief description of the SERA-SPIF project.