Retrofitting a Missouri steel baghouse

A typical industrial steel structure located near Kansas City, Missouri, is reviewed for structural integrity. The structure provides support to heavy production equipment and is in the last stage of construction. The review finds this facility structurally unsound because of excessive lateral displacements. It is in danger of collapsing under the combined effect of dead load, heavy load, and peak wind load. Although it appears more economical to rebuild the structure, for political reasons the manufacturer rules out the rebuild option. As a result, an extensive retrofit effort is conducted to the structure immediately following the review. This paper discusses some of the review findings and the challenges they pose for the retrofit effort. It describes the strategy used to address or circumvent some of the difficulties. The behaviors of the structure before and after the retrofit are compared to illustrate the basic concept and the effectiveness of the retrofit effort.