An innovative framework for risk assessment of non-structural components for industrial plants

Na-Tech events (Natural Hazard Triggering Technological Disasters) are industrial accidents triggered by natural events such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tsunami, etc. In the recent decades, various analytical approaches for the performance-based earthquake engineering (PBEE) have been developed. The most famous approach has been provided by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) Center, which consists of four stages: hazard analysis, demand analysis, damage analysis, and risk assessment. The accuracy of this method in the case of complex critical infrastructure, such as nuclear and non-nuclear industrial plants, is still under investigation. Specifically for these critical structures, it is necessary to define different Limit States and appropriate Engineering Demand Parameters (EDP), especially in presence of critical Non-Structural Components (NSC), whose damage can have serious consequences. Furthermore, because of the narrow distribution of frequencies in the demand of NSC, the selection of ground motion records for fragility analysis is also a critical aspect. Consequently, the aim of the proposed study is to investigate the suitability of the PBEE approach in presence of NSCs and their dynamic interaction with the primary structure. On these premises, a comprehensive shake table test campaign was carried out with the aim to investigate the seismic behaviour of two structural configurations of a representative industrial multi-storey frame equipped with process NSCs. The main limit states for NCSs are identified and the related fragility curves are built, in a PBEE perspective, based on both experimental results and finite element model (FEM) simulations. For this purpose, an innovative algorithm for ground accelerogram selection is used. Finally, the mean annual frequency (MAF) of exceedance of the experimentally identified limit states for relevant NSCs is carried out.