Seismic Risk Assessment of an Industrial Steel Building Part 1: Modelling and Analysis

In this paper seismic modelling and analysis of an existing steel industrial building are described. The building is made of different portions built between 1970s and 1990s and it is located in central Italy. The study addresses some issues which emerged to be important in order to evaluate seismic performances: (i) modelling of column base connections, which in case of existing structures may be significantly different from the standardized detailing for which structural codes give information; (ii) the role and effect of transverse bracing between parallel bi-dimensional frames, which is investigated by comparing three-dimensional and bi-dimensional models; (iii) the role of P-Delta effects and the assessment of sidesway global collapse; (iv) the importance to check the structure for local failure modes involving roof members and connections. Results from nonlinear static and dynamic analysis, both in terms of global drift and member force demand, are presented and discussed.