The document summarizes an honors thesis proposal about analyzing the structures of shelving systems for palletized products. The proposal discusses the candidate's qualifications and experience, provides context on past seismic research on storage racks, reviews experimental and analytical research, identifies research needs, and outlines the proposed research directions. The proposed research aims to develop accurate models of rack systems to establish practical seismic design methodologies that can be implemented in standards to improve safety.

1. Presented by :
OLA ALI KADHIM
Honors Thesis Proposal
For
Analysis of the structures of the shelving systems for
palletized products
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2. Summary of the presentation
The presentation revolves around the following axes:
• The experience and the qualifications of the candidate
• Presentation of the master thesis
• General context of the thesis proposal
• Review of past seismic research on storage rack
• Research needs
• Research directions
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3. The experience and the qualifications of the candidate
• Laureate of the master's degree in civil engineering
from the UTCB,
• Laureate of the College Of Engineering - Baghdad
University in civil engineering
• + 6 years of experience as civil engineer,
• Acted as Lead Design Engineer on multiple signing and
pavement marking projects
• Contribution to the assessment and design of the base
isolation of the Victor Babes hospital building of
Bucharest.
• Experienced user of Abaqus (design of foundations),
Etabs, Sap2000 and 3DMax.
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4. Presentation of the master thesis
• My thesis had as subject the reinforcement of The “Victor Babes” building that
was “designed” and built during the 1940s, about 20 years before 1963, The
building had several destinations and, since the 1980s, the building has been
changed into a hospital.
• The technical assessment of the “Victor Babes” hospital building was caused
by the existence of a state of uncertainty about its strength and stability,
potentiated by a number of damaged columns in the two basements.
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5. Presentation of the master thesis
• The possibility of the seismic isolation application was favoured by the
actual configuration of the building (a strong and stiff floor structure at
the 0.00m level and isolated footings under columns at a depth of -
0.60m).
• Study was performed by applying the ambient vibration testing
method. The instrumental data acquisition was performed with
equipment of high performance and sensitivity. 5
• A base isolation procedure was
imposed due to the fact that it
is the only hospital for
infectious diseases in
Bucharest and, therefore, it
cannot be decommissioned in
order to perform a classical
strengthening solution.

6. Presentation of the master thesis
• During the preliminary design stage, the basic properties, type and
number of the isolators were established. Placing the building onto a
system of seismic isolation will cause a considerable decrease of the
seismic forces, thus the induced displacements will affect only the
seismic isolation system, the building being determined to behave like a
rigid unit. Particularly high displacements requirements led, among
other things, to the need to secure an area of at least 40 cm.
• structural model of analysis for the structural system of the building
after the new jutties were added is presented. The base isolation
system was provided for the entire building.
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7. Results of the master thesis
• The theoretical study that was performed using different structural models of
analysis based on the Etabs software led in this stage of works to an
equivalent fundamental Eigen period of vibration of the isolated building
equal to 3.50 s and a displacement equal to 32.90 cm.
• The obtained solution with satisfactory accuracy also showed a significant
reduction of the base shear force for the isolated structure accompanied by an
increase of its strength and stiffness capacity.
• At the same time the values of the relative displacements resulted within
acceptable limits. A contribution to these results was also brought by the
introduced rigid and resistant outer frames.
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8. General context of the Thesis Proposal
• The number of large public warehouse stores (often
referred to as big-box stores) across Romania and the
European Union has grown significantly, changing both
consumer buying habits and the public’s risk of injury
during earthquakes.
• During an earthquake, occupant safety depends on
both the structural performance of the building and on
the performance of the storage racks and their
contents.
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9. General context of the Thesis Proposal
Storage rack structures are mainly designed for seismic actions
based on rack provisions including :
– the Rack Manufacturers Institute (RMI) specification,
– European code (EN 16681)
– American National Standards Institute (ANSI MH16).
Nevertheless, in many regions, the design of racking frames is still
based on general seismic design codes due to the lack of enough
guidelines for the dynamic design of rack frames.
Additionally, some of the current seismic design standards do not
consider the sliding of the frame (or only consider the rocking of
pallets on the rack beams) for the design procedure.
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10. Different racks failure during the Emilia-Romagna
Earthquake 2012, Italy
• It was observed that, despite the basic assumptions for
seismic design and stability analysis, “linear
deformation of the frame” is not an accurate
assumption and therefore not all the connections
experience the same rotation along the frame height.
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11. Different racks failure during the Emilia-Romagna Earthquake
2012, Italy
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• The cyclic deterioration of connections triggered a
progressive collapse of all frames in the warehouse,
which indicates that the current racking codes and
specifications are still weak about the cyclic features of
the connections.

12. review of some experimental research
• One of the first shake‐table studies on storage racks was
conducted by Chen et al. who tested four types of full‐scale
industrial steel storage racks under scaled ground motions of
El‐Centro (ELC) and Parkfield earthquakes. The shake table tests
demonstrated that the P‐delta effects meaningfully influence
the response of the racks in the down‐aisle direction.
• A comprehensive shake table program was carried out at the
University of Buffalo on four steel storage rack configurations,
and it was stated that the rotational stiffness of beam‐to‐upright
connections was significantly attempt, Filiatrault et al.
characterized the seismic performance of the rack frames under
earthquake excitation and identified the pallet shedding fragility
under a series of ground motions through shake table testing.
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13. review of some analytical and numerical research
• Chen et al. (1980b) developed also two dimensional nonlinear
numerical models for standard pallet racks in both down-aisle and
crossaisle directions and compared their predictions to the results
obtained from shake-table tests :
– In the down-aisle direction, semi-rigid beam-to-upright connections and semi-
fixed upright bases were assumed in evaluating their initial stiffness.
– Second order (P-delta) effects also were considered in the time-history
dynamic analyses.
– Good agreement was observed between the predicted and experimental
results.
• Baldissino and Bernuzzi (2000) conducted a numerical study on the
lateral-load response of steel storage pallet rack systems commonly
used in Europe. The results confirmed that the nonlinear rotational
behavior of beam-to-upright connections influenced significantly the
response of storage rack systems in the down-aisle direction.
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14. Research needs
• As presented in this brief review, the current engineering knowledge
base concerning the earthquake safety and vulnerability of storage
racks is 30 to 40 years old and is limited to contents and racks unlike
many modern applications.
• The retail industry and the state-of-the art of the design of storage
racks have changed considerably in the interim. Large chains of stores
now routinely invite the public to shop in physical environments that
formerly were only found in warehouse occupancies, racks have more
complex configurations and are taller, and their contents have become
heavier.
• These facts clearly pinpoint to urgent research needs related to the
seismic behavior of storage rack systems. There is a need to develop a
general purpose computer based numerical model for the prediction
of the seismic response of storage racks and contents.
• The development of such a general-purpose model would require
close coordination and interaction with experimental work.
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15. Research directions
• This research project will aim to study the seismic behaviour of
storage racks. This aim will be achieved by exploiting available
data tests and if possibly conduct tests in conjunction with
nonlinear dynamic analysis, and developing practical seismic
design methodologies which can be implemented in design
standards.
• The specific aims of the project are to:
– Review the available seismic tests on racks systems to define the level of
modeling needed for this project.
– Develop accurate finite element models which can be used for parametric
studies.
– Establish practical methodologies for the seismic design of racks,
considering the equivalent static force method, response spectrum design
method, and design by analysis using the nonlinear dynamic analysis
method.
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16. Research directions
• The significance of this project is that it will:
– produce research-based guidelines that will allow the safe
design of racks in seismic regions;
– increase the safety of workers in industries and warehouses,
reduce owners’ potential liability, and save industries the costs
associated with earthquake-induced structural damage,
– provide solutions to the difficult problem of predicting the
inelastic transient dynamic response of racks.
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17. 17
Thank you for your time and
attention

18. Presented by :
OLA ALI KADHIM
Honors Thesis Proposal
For
Analysis of the structures of the shelving systems for
palletized products
18