Seismic vulnerability of industrial steel structures with masonry infills using a numerical approach

Abstract

Recent earthquakes have highlighted the high vulnerability of the industrial structures that are not specifically designed for accounting seismic forces. Among them, a widespread typology is characterised by steel structures without bracing or other anti-seismic details and with masonry infills. With the aim of increasing the knowledge on the seismic behaviour of these structures, this work focuses on a mechanical-based approach for the evaluation of fragility curves for industrial areas. The exposure data are obtained by in-situ survey and acquiring information available in existing databases, like the Italian Cartis-GL one that is specifically devised for industrial structures. The variability of geometrical and mechanical data and the presence of epistemic uncertainties are considered by constructing a population of structures using the Monte Carlo method. Each structure is analysed through static-nonlinear simulations adopting mixed finite elements accounting for geometrical and constitutive nonlinearities. The approach is tested for infilled steel structures in the industrial area of the municipality of Spezzano Albanese (Italy). Results show that the presence of masonry infill drastically modifies the seismic behaviour of this structural typology. In particular, it turns out that if the mechanical contribution of the infill is neglected, the structures exhibit high damages even for low intensities of the seismic action.