PASSIVE CONTROL TECHNIQUES FOR SEISMIC PROTECTION OF CHEMICAL PLANTS

Seismic damage of chemical plant facilities (pressure vessels, piping, storage tanks, etc..) can causes human and economic losses as well as heavy environmental damages. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to reduce such a consequences. The passive control techniques (PCT) as dampers or base isolation can represent an effective technique to mitigate the major damage caused by earthquakes. Viscous dampers, tuned mass dampers and base isolators are well-known passive control devices successfully applied to civil structures, as demonstrated during the last big events as Northridge earthquake in 1994, the Kobe earthquake in 1995, the Great East Japan earthquake in 2011. The scarce application to major hazard industrial facilities as chemical plants poses some questions, including the selection of suitable devices, their real applicability and effectiveness, because of the strict requirements of chemical plant equipment in terms of safety and business continuity. Therefore, this study aim at analyzing the possible applications of the most renew passive control techniques for seismic protection for chemical plant components. In this respect, a complete review of typical seismic damage of industrial (chemical) facilities and the investigation of the applicability of PCT as mitigation strategy is offered for all possible structural typologies of units presents in a plant.