Passive Control for Sesmic Protection of Critical Components in Industrial Process Plants

The paper reports a methodology of approach and some preliminary results of a recently undertaken research activity, aimed at the evaluation of the benefits which might derive by the use of passive control techniques for the seismic protection of critical equipment and components in industrial process plants. After presenting a classification of such equipment and components, using a seismic risk point of view, and a short survey of some recently observed earthquake induced failures, and of their consequences, a couple of application studies are briefly reported. The first one is a seismic retrofitting case-study of a spherical butane storage tank, by means of different passive control techniques; the other is the experimental study and validation of a new steel bracing system which, for its characteristics, appears particularly fit to be used in applications related to industrial plants.