Development of Innovative Devices for Seismic Protection of Petrochemical Facilities

The objective is to develop new risk prevention and/or reduction strategies to eliminate catastrophic seismic damage to petrochemical facilities located in active areas throughout Europe. There were identified a number of structures as most critical to the overall plant safety. Innovative experimental and numerical methods will allow a quantitative evaluation of the soil-structure and fluid-structure-interaction as well as an evaluation of various form of energy dissipation. Seismic strengthening and/or isolation methods including additional energy dissipation devices will be developed when the analysis does suggest an associated increase in plant safety. An accepted standard within the EU for the seismic evaluation of structures at these facilities will be the stated objective and presented at the planned international conference. Verification and validation of developed design guidelines will provide the practicing engineer with a valuable addition to Eurocode 8.