Design of Reinforced Concrete Chimneys for Earthquake Forces

Abstract

Codes and standards have generally provided conservative guidelines for design of tall reinforced concrete chimneys because of their inherent brittle nature and low redundancy. This paper reviews the state-of-the-practice for seismic design of concrete chimneys. The codes and standards reviewed in this paper are the American Concrete Institute's Committee for Design and Construction of Reinforced Concrete Chimneys (ACI 307-98 and the proposed ACI 307-XX), International Conference of Building Officials (UBC 1997), the International Building Code (IBC 2006), the International Committee on Industrial Chimneys (CICIND 2001) and Eurocode 8-6 (2005). The paper discusses the provisions presented in the above codes and standards and compares them from the point of view of design philosophies, expected chimney behavior, required detailing, economy of design and design rationality. Based on this review, some concluding remarks are presented for design of RC chimneys in the United States.