Toppling of rigid electric equipment during earthquakes

•This study presents a framework for seismic toppling risk of rigid equipment.•Three support conditions are studied: simply supported, anchored, base isolated.•Anchored and simply supported equipment performed well in near source conditions.•Reliability index increases almost linearly with the block...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Engineering structures 2018-08, Vol.168, p.229-242
Main Authors: Jaimes, Miguel A., Candia, Gabriel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aspect ratio
Concrete
Earthquakes
Electric equipment
Electrical equipment
Empirical analysis
Fragility
Geology
Mitigation
Numerical analysis
Power plants
Reliability aspects
Rigid electric equipment
Risk assessment
Seismic activity
Seismic engineering
Seismic response
Seismicity
Software reliability
Structural engineering
Toppling risk
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Summary:•This study presents a framework for seismic toppling risk of rigid equipment.•Three support conditions are studied: simply supported, anchored, base isolated.•Anchored and simply supported equipment performed well in near source conditions.•Reliability index increases almost linearly with the block’s aspect ratio. This study presents a general formulation for toppling risk assessment of rigid electrical equipment during earthquakes. The seismic response, toppling fragility functions and toppling risk were examined for three types of support conditions, namely: (1) equipment simply supported on the foundation; (2) equipment anchored to the foundation; and (3) equipment supported on a seismic base isolator. Because empirical fragility functions for overturning equipment remain insufficient, the present study relies on numerical analysis and a solid physical background to compute risk. These results should aid designers in the selection of appropriate support conditions or mitigation measures for rigid electric equipment in seismic prone regions. As an example, the toppling risk methodology is presented using Mexican seismicity and a set of nine electrical equipment commonly used throughout Mexican power stations, with heights between 3 and 5 m, covering an ample range of frequency parameters (1.54 
ISSN:0141-0296
1873-7323
DOI:10.1016/j.engstruct.2018.04.083