Seismic Isolation of Wine Barrel Stacks on Portable Steel Racks

Abstract eng:
The International Building Code 2006 (IBC 2006) puts forth provisions that apply directly to steel storage racks in occupied structures. By following these provisions, it is shown in this paper that the current typical stacking method of 55 Gallon Bordeaux wine barrels on portable steel racks is not code compliant. Furthermore, collapsing wine barrels stacks during seismic events may not only result in monetary loss, but may also pose a hazard to employees and patrons in the barrel housing facilities. This, in fact, was evident in both recent research and recent earthquakes that have shown this common stacking practice to be at high risk of stack collapse during code design level earthquakes. Previous published research on the behavior of stacked wine barrels during seismic excitation (Marrow, 2002; Chadwell et al., 2006; Brown, 2007) has predominately focused on identifying the hazard, as well as characterizing the nonlinear rocking behavior of wine barrel stacks. The research presented herein describes an on going research program to provide wine barrel stack collapse mitigation by using seismic isolation bearings. The bearings are made of hardened steel ball bearings rolling inside a cubic polynomial surface fit from simulation to best minimize the force transmission between ground shaking and the wine barrel stack. What is unique to this particular application in seismic isolation is that unlike typical isolation, where a balance between maximum displacements and force transmission is sought, isolation of wine barrel stacks focuses only on collapse prevention. Excessive lateral displacements are not a main concern. This paper describes the need for an isolation bearing in the context of code design, the development and details of the bearing used, and test data collected from barrels stacked one and two levels high. Physical simulations conducted as part of this study demonstrate that the isolation bearing proposed can be a viable solution to the seismic hazard mitigation of wine barrel stack collapse. Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, the application of this research may have broader implications for the collapse protection of stacked rigid bodies in general.

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