Multidisciplinary Efforts in Seismic Risk Assessment and Retrofitting of Existing Facilities Containing Hazardous Materials

Abstract eng:
Two years ago, the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection (MOE) required from the top-20 most hazardous facilities in the industry sector to asses their capability to withstand a significant Earthquake. Clearly, the combination of: 1) stochastic seismic phenomena; 2) the dangers of a process involving hazardous materials; and 3) the fact that existing processes in the industry were rarely designed according to a seismic standard; poses a highly significant risk. Moreover, the cost of retrofitting an existing facility is considerably high. Therefore, a state-of-the-art engineering, e.g. displacement-based considerations and non linearity behaviour both in the ground and in the upper structures and facilities, and a careful design, yet cost-effective, had to be set. By taking advantage on the pilot study initiated by the Israeli MOE, the authors developed a practical probabilistic methodology for decision making concerning the retrofitting of processes containing hazardous substances vulnerable to seismic events. The proposed methodology is based on the quantification of the damage due to earthquakes, calculation of the retrofitting cost and using the proportion between these two values as an acceptance criterion. The proposed approach has been used for risk assessment in various industries such as chlorine plants, fertilizers plant, refrigerating facilities in the food industry, pharmaceutical industries and other chemical industries. The case studies shown in this article demonstrate how the close collaboration of engineers from the wide disciplines involved; stimulate appropriate and realistic solutions, perhaps unusual sometimes.

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