Seismic PROtection of INDUSTRial plants by enhanced steel based sYstems

Title: Seismic PROtection of INDUSTRial plants by enhanced steel based sYstems

The objective of the PROINDUSTRY project, which is funded under the Research Fund for Coal and Steel, is the development of enhanced seismic protection systems for process plants, process units, storage units, pipeline and pipe systems, through innovative antiseismic techniques: seismic isolation systems and energy dissipation systems. The systems shall be suitable for both the retrofit of existing industrial structures and the design of new ones. Particular attention will be given to the self-centring capacities of the systems as it will constitute an innovative and efficient ability that will rise up the protection against the earthquake, avoid interruptions of production after the seismic event and make easier repairs of the structure.

The project brings together partners of significant status in the field of steel construction. The consortium is comprised of some of the most notable engineering departments in Europe along with multinational companies that are active in the field. These include the Universita di Pisa, the Universite de Liege and the Universita degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza, Rheinisch-Westfaelische Technische Hochschule Aachen the ILVA SPA group the Solvay Chimica Italia S.P.A, Maurer Sohne Engineering GmBH & Co. KG and Neapolis University in Cyprus.

Neapolis University is studying the Sodium Structure, a 13 floor building with steel cross sections and steel, concrete and wood floor slabs. It consists of 3002 frame members and the analysis used is incremental dynamic under detailed definition of the structural topology and sizes of the model. In the next stages the results derived from the incremental dynamic analysis after the involvement of the dissipative devices will also be studied. Their optimum influence on the response will be achieved through a structural optimization problem solution using genetic algorithms. The final scope is to evaluate the enhancements of the structural behavior due to dampers and to verify the efficiency of the proposed EDS solutions by the application to case study.

Funding & Duration

The program is funded by the European Commission under the Research Fund for Coal and Steel and the total amount of the budget is 1.568.194 Euros with 60% funding ratio. The participation of Neapolis University is €180.377where €108.227 are provided by EU funding. The starting date of the project is 01/07/2013 and the duration 42 months.

Researchers

Dr Nikolaos P. Bakas (main contributor). Dr John Bellos.

Prof. Carlo Castiglioni (external consultant) and Dr Alpay Kanyilmaz (external researcher)

Actual Picture of Sodium Building

Actual-Picture-of-Sodium-Building-Neapolis-University-in-cyprus-research