ACI 376: Seismic Requirements

Dr. Praveen K. Malhotra, P.E.

Spring 2012 ACI Meeting
Dallas, TX, March 20, 2012

ACI 376 Seismic Task Group

Joe
Joe Hoptay
Sheng-Chi Wu
Keith
K ith Mash
M h
Nick Legatos
g
Praveen K. Malhotra (Chair)

Goals
Seismic design shall be transparent
Seismic design shall be risk-based (performancebased)

Future Ground Motions at a Site

First Performance Objective

The tank shall remain operational for ground
motions with >10% chance of exceedance in 50
years (475
(475-year
year MRP)

Second Performance Objective

The tank shall remain safe
safe for ground motions with
>2% chance of exceedance in 50 years (2475-year
MRP)

Third Performance Objective

The tank shall also remain safe
safe under the
aftershocks of 2475-year MRP ground motions

Operating Basis and Safe Shutdown

E h k Ground
Earthquake
G
dM
Motions
i
OBE and SSE ground motions shall be determined
from purely probabilistic seismic hazard analysis
without any artificial adjustments
OBE 2/3 SSE
SSE MCE

Probabilistic and MCE Ground Motions

The MCE (Maximum Considered Earthquake)
ground motions are derived from the probabilistic
((2475-year
y return pperiod)) gground motions after
applying the higher of the following limits:
1.5 UBC 1998 Zone 4
1.5 Deterministic (median)

The resulting ground motions have different mean

return periods in different parts of the country

MCE Response Spectra for Two Cities

Note that the mean return periods are very different

2/3 MCE Response Spectra for Two Cities

Note that the mean return periods are very different

SSE (Safe Shutdown Earthquake) Ground

M i
Motions
Design
g based on MCE gground motions will result in nonuniform risk throughout the country/world
It was decided to base the SSE design on 2475-year MRP
groundd motions
i
throughout
h
h the
h world
ld
2475-year MRP ground motions can be obtained from the
USGS website or from probabilistic seismic hazard analysis
(PSHA)

OBE (Operating Basis Earthquake)

Ground Motions
It was decided to use 475-year MRP ground
motions for OBE design
OBE 2/3 SSE
OBE is uncoupled from SSE
OBE ground motions can be obtained from the
USGS website or from the PSHA

SSEaftft (Aftershock of an SSE)

SSEaftft OBE
The ratio between OBE and SSE varies from
location to location,
location but the ratio between SSEaft
and SSE should remain fixed
SSEaft = SSE

Seismic Design Without R

R Factors

Load Reduction Due to Period Elongation

Period elongates
due to:

Foundation flexibility
Base uplifting
Base sliding
Plastic-yielding

Load Reduction Due to Damping Increase

Damping increases
due to:
Plastic-yielding
Base sliding
Radiation of energy
th
through
h the
th
foundation

Load Reduction Due to Overstrength

Reasons for
overstrength:
Redundancy in
load path?
Reserve strength

Judgment-Based
Judgment
Based Load Reduction Factor
R = RR
RR
R =
3.5 for self anchored tanks
4 0 ffor mechanically
4.0
h i ll anchored
h d ttanks
k

SSE design shall be carried out without the

use of judgment-based R factors
Nonlinearities, damping, and overstrength shall be
explicitly considered in seismic design

Conclusions
Seismic design carried out with
Purely probabilistic ground motions
True loads,
loads and
True strengths
is much
m ch more transparent

ACI
C 376 seismic design provisions are consistent
with NFPA 59A and analogous to API 620