Risk analysis of industrial structures under extreme transient loads

A modular analysis package is assembled for assessing risk in typical industrial structural units such as steel storage tanks, due to extreme transient loads that are produced either as a result of chemical explosions in the form of atmospheric blasts or because of seismic activity in the form of ground motions. The main components of the methodology developed for this purpose are as follows: (i) description of blast overpressure and ground seismicity, (ii) transient non-linear finite element analysis of the industrial structure, (iii) development of 3D-equivalent. continuous beam multi-degree-of-freedom structural models, (iv) introduction of soil-structure interaction effects, (v) probabilistic description of the loading process and the stiffness/mass characteristics of the structure, and (vi) generation of fragility curves for estimation of structural damage levels by using the Latin hypercube statistical sampling method. These fragility curves can then be used within the context of the engineering analysis-design cycle, so as to minimize structural failure probability under both man-made hazards such as blasts and natural hazards such as earthquake-induced transient loads. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.