STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF A STRATEGIC BUILDING

In recent times structural codes dealing with the seismic design of strategic buildings introduced dynamic and nonlinear analysis as a standard approach to evaluate the seismic performance under ultimate and service loads. At the same time the attention to the analysis of the dynamic response of civil structures under earthquake motion is becoming fundamental for practical engineering applications in particular because in the past did not exist structural codes dealing with this aspect and therefore the analysis were performed under the hypothesis of static behavior. Moreover, the soil-structure interaction is recognized to be a principal aspect affecting the dynamic structural response since the non homogeneous material behavior of the soil and the movements of the foundations under seismic loads are aspects that deeply affect the values of the forces acting on the building. Despite research efforts in the last years, there is still lack of standardized numerical procedures that can be used in the engineering practice. In this paper, a numerical procedure used to determine the structural response of a strategic building under construction in Latina (Rome) within the framework of the extension of the existing nuclear plant is described. The structure under study is an industrial building having a rectangular configuration, the structural components are reinforced concrete shear walls along the perimeter and in the central part, two slabs having a span of around 13 meters and a plate foundation having a thickness of around 1 meter. First a finite element analysis is performed under earthquake actions determined according the Italian code (DM2008) and the Italian guidelines for nuclear plants (SOGIN standard). Based on this first analysis, the reinforced concrete structural elements are designed and finally an incremental dynamic analysis is performed to take into account the soil-structure interaction influence on the dynamic response of the building.