Performance of industrial buildings during the Emilia earthquakes in Northern Italy and recommendations for their strengthening

Bournas, Dionysios A.; Negro, Paolo; Taucer, Fabio F.

Abstract

A series of earthquakes, the highest of magnitude M w 5.9, hit a portion of the Po Valley in Northern Italy, which was only recently classified as seismic. The paper reports the findings and the lessons learnt from a preliminary field survey which was conducted immediately after the second event. As a result of the economic attitude of the affected area, and possibly of the characteristics of the event, an unprecedented number of industrial precast buildings were affected, resulting into most of the casualties as well as in large economic losses. Whereas most of the damaged and collapsed buildings were designed for gravity loads only, evidence of poor behavior of some precast buildings designed according to seismic provisions were discovered. The paper provides a description of the performance of precast buildings, highlighting the deficiencies that led to their poor behavior as well as some preliminary recommendations.

Citation

Bournas, D. A., Negro, P., & Taucer, F. F. (2013). Performance of industrial buildings during the Emilia earthquakes in Northern Italy and recommendations for their strengthening. Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering, 12(5), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-013-9466-z

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 21, 2013
• Publication Date: Jun 7, 2013
• Deposit Date: Apr 9, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 9, 2014
• Journal: Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering
• Print ISSN: 1570-761X
• Electronic ISSN: 1573-1456
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 12
• Issue: 5
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-013-9466-z
• Keywords: Industrial buildings; Precast structures; Connections; Cladding elements; Simply supported beams; Steel storage racks
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/715814
• Publisher URL: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10518-013-9466-z
• Contract Date: Apr 9, 2014