On the Effectiveness of Two Isolation Systems for the Seismic Protection of Elevated Tanks

Author(s):  
Fabrizio Paolacci

This paper deals with the effectiveness of two isolation system for the seismic protection of elevated steel storage tanks. In particular the performance of High Damping Rubber Bearings and Friction Pendulum isolators has been analyzed. As case study an emblematic example of elevated tanks collapsed during the Koaceli Earthquake in 1999 at Habas Pharmaceutics plant in Turkey has been considered. A time-history analysis conducted using lumped mass models demonstrated the high demand in terms of base shear required to the support columns and their inevitable collapse due to the insufficient shear strength. A proper design of HDRB and FPS isolator and a complete non-linear analysis of the isolated tanks proved the high effectiveness of both isolation systems in reducing the response of the case tank. Actually, a reduced level of displacements of isolators and a reduced level of convective base shear obtained with the second isolation typology, suggested the used of FPS isolators rather than HDRB.

2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabrizio Paolacci

This paper deals with the effectiveness of two isolation systems for the seismic protection of elevated steel storage tanks. In particular, the performance of high damping rubber bearings (HDRB) and friction pendulum isolators (FPS) has been analyzed. As case study, an emblematic example of elevated tanks collapsed during the Koaceli Earthquake in 1999 at Habas pharmaceutics plant in Turkey is considered. A time-history analysis conducted using lumped mass models demonstrates the high demand in terms of base shear required to the support columns and their inevitable collapse due to the insufficient shear strength. A proper design of HDRB and FPS isolator according to the EN1998 and a complete nonlinear analysis of the isolated tanks proved the high effectiveness of both isolation systems in reducing the response of the case tank. Actually, the stability conditions imposed by the code and a reduced level of convective base shear obtained with the second isolation typology suggests the use of FPS isolators rather than HDRB devices.


2012 ◽  
Vol 594-597 ◽  
pp. 1788-1799 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donato Cancellara ◽  
Fabio de Angelis

In the present paper the dynamic nonlinear analysis for a 3D base isolated structure is illustrated. A base isolated reinforced concrete building is designed and verified according to the European seismic codes such that the superstructure remains almost completely elastic and the nonlinear elements are localized only in the base isolation system. Nonlinear hysteretic models have been adopted to reproduce the cyclic behavior of the isolators. Two different base isolation systems are considered and their performances are compared for evaluating the behaviour of a base isolated building, highly irregular in plan, in presence of a seismic excitation defined with recorded accelerograms which characterize the bi-directional ground motions. The isolation system has been realized with a combination in parallel of elastomeric bearings and sliding devices. In the first analyzed isolation system we have used the High Damping Rubber Bearings (HDRB) and in the second analyzed isolation system we have used the Lead Rubber Bearings (LRB). Finally a comparative analysis between the base isolated structure with hybrid base isolation systems and the conventional fixed base structure is detailed.


Author(s):  
Rui-Fu Zhang ◽  
Da-Gen Weng ◽  
Wei-Bo Ni

Most of the large LNG tanks have a fundamental frequency between 2 and 10 Hz which involves range of resonance of most earthquake ground motions. It is a fact that tanks could be damaged easily in the earthquake, which had been proved in many cases in the past few decades. It is an effective way to reduce the response for an isolation system being used for large LNG storage tanks in the strong earthquake. However, the displacement of the isolation story for actual project is very large in soft site so that the design of connection components is relatively difficult. In order to solve this problem, isolation system which is composed of annular damper reaction wall, viscous dampers, and lead rubber bearings mounted on the top of the piles is presented in this paper. The annular damper reaction wall which is not connected with the piles is embedded into the ground independently. The multi-degree-of-freedom lumped mass model is used to solve the governing equations of motion in which convective, impulsive and rigid masses are included. Simplified model of an actual LNG tank which can contain 160000m3 gases is analyzed by using isolators and annular damper reaction wall. The efficiency of the isolation system is investigated by analyzing various parameters such as displacement of the isolation story, base shear and so on. The results show that isolation system is very effective to control the displacement of isolation story, and at the same time base shear and other parameters are also effectively controlled.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 22-30
Author(s):  
Ashish R. Akhare

The efficiency of traditional isolation bearings is doubted for near-field earthquakes because these bearings undergo large displacement. A comparative study of different base isolation systems of base-isolated benchmark building is carried out in the present study. The study is based on assumption that buildings are bi-directionally acted upon by near-field earthquakes for assessing their relative performance in seismic control of the benchmark building. The time history variations of important response parameters and evaluation criteria of the benchmark building has been studied for assessing the effectiveness of the isolation systems. The Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) is utilized with elastomeric bearings and friction bearings to study the effectiveness of SMA wires with different isolators. The benchmark building is modelled as a discrete linear elastic shear structure having three degrees of- freedom at each floor level. Time domain dynamic analysis of this building has been carried out with the help of constant average acceleration Newmark’s method and equilibrium of non-linear forces has been taken care by fourth order Runge-Kutta method. The comparative performance of various isolation systems has been studied with uniform and hybrid combinations. The hybrid combination of SMA supplemented bearings works out the better isolation system keeping in view of the percentage reduction in evaluation criteria for smart base-isolated benchmark building. Furthermore, it is shown that, the functionality of SMA wire is not efficient with Lead Rubber Bearing system, as it is able to control displacement but increases the acceleration, base shear, story drift and isolation forces.


2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 1147-1163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osman E. Ozbulut ◽  
Stefan Hurlebaus

This paper presents a comparative seismic performance assessment of super-elastic-friction base isolator (S-FBI) systems in improving the response of bridges under near-field earthquakes. The S-FBI system consists of a steel-Teflon sliding bearing and a superelastic shape memory alloy (SMA) device. The other isolation systems considered here are lead rubber bearing (LRB), friction pendulum system (FPS), and resilient-friction base isolator (R-FBI). Each isolation system is designed to provide the same isolation period and characteristic strength. Nonlinear time-history analyses of an isolated bridge are performed to compare the performance of various isolation systems. The results indicate that the S-FBI system shows superior performance in reducing deck displacement response and effectively limits permanent bearing deformation, whereas residual deformations are present for the other isolation systems in some cases. It is also observed that the LRB system has the largest deck drifts while the FPS system and R-FBI system produce the smallest peak deck acceleration and base shear.


2006 ◽  
Vol 06 (01) ◽  
pp. 77-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. B. SONEJI ◽  
R. S. JANGID

This paper investigates the effectiveness of elastomeric and sliding types of isolation systems for the seismic response control of cable-stayed bridges. A simplified two-dimensional lumped-mass finite-element model of the Quincy Bay-view Bridge at Illinois was developed for the investigation. The seismic isolation of cable-stayed bridges is achieved using three different isolators, namely, high damping rubber bearings (HDRB), lead rubber bearings (LRB) and friction pendulum system (FPS). Time history analysis is performed for the bridge with four different earthquake ground motions applied in the longitudinal direction using Newmark's method with linear variation of acceleration over the time interval. The seismic response of the isolated cable-stayed bridge is compared with that of the bridge with no isolation system. The results show that the isolation systems are effective for reducing the absolute acceleration of the deck and the base shear response of the tower. Further, a parametric study is performed by varying the damping ratio, yield strength and friction coefficient of HDRB, LRB and FPS to investigate the influence of these parameters on the seismic response of the bridge. From such a study, optimal values can be found for the isolators for reducing the bridge responses.


Seismic isolation is one of the most efficient techniques to protect structures against earthquakes. Rubber bearings are suitable for low-rise and medium-rise buildings due to its durability and easy fabrication. This paper presents the hori-zontal response of a six-storey base-isolated building using high damping rubber bearings (HDRB) under two ground motions of earthquakes as types I and II in JRA (2002) by finite element analysis. In this analysis, these bearings are mod-elled by the bilinear hysteretic model which is indicated in JRA and AASHTO. Comparison of horizontal response including base shear force and roof level acceleration between the two cases: base-isolated building and fixed-base building is carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the use of HDRB on the protection of buildings from earthquakes. The numerical results show that the peak value of roof floor acceleration of the fixed-base building is two times higher than that of the base-isolated building, and the floor accelerations depend on the peak values of ground acceleration. In addition, the step-by-step design procedure for deter-mining the size of HDRBs used for buildings is also presented in this paper.


Author(s):  
Massimo Forni ◽  
Alessandro Poggianti ◽  
Giulia Bergamo ◽  
Fabrizio Gatti

The Project INDEPTH (Development of INnovative DEvices for Seismic Protection of PeTrocHemical Facilities), supported by the European Commission, has the objective of developing and applying innovative seismic isolation and/or dissipation systems for critical structures at petrochemical facilities. In the framework of INDEPTH, integrated seismic protection systems have been conceived, developed and tested. They are aimed at protecting liquid-filled structures (product storage, spherical and LNG tanks), with new devices (fiber-reinforced isolators, buckling reinforced braces) specific for each application and new flexible piping couplings, to compensate the displacements resulting from the use of isolation systems. The research program has been focused on the selection of critical structures, the design and manufacturing of the devices, the numerical assessment and the experimental validation through shaking table tests [1–4]. A quantification of technical/economical/safety benefits with respect to the conventional state-of-the-art measures presently adopted and potential application to retrofitting has been performed. This paper describes the validation through shaking table tests of the effectiveness of the isolation systems on a spherical mock-up and the related piping system equipped with flexible joints. Different configurations of the mock-up have been tested, such as: fixed base, isolated base with High Damping Rubber Bearings, Fiber Reinforced Rubber Bearings and Lead Rubber Bearings. Furthermore, each configuration has been tested for three different level of filling to verify the sloshing behavior in the sphere and the effectiveness of the isolation systems at filling levels different from the design one (full sphere).


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