Innovative dissipative devices for increasing the seismic performance of steel storage pallet racks

Recent earthquake events have clearly highlighted the seismic vulnerability of steel storage pallet racks. Despite the cost of the racks is quite limited, the content stored can be very expensive. As a matter of fact, the 2012 Emilia earthquake (in Italy) led to enormous direct and indirect economic loss. For instance, only considering the cheese industry, the damages of Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano wheels determined a cost of about €150 million. Notwithstanding the recent endeavours for the seismic behaviour assessment of such structures, there is still a lack of knowledge and techniques regarding retrofitting approaches for the existing rack systems. This paper aims to introduce a new device for improving the seismic behaviour of steel storage pallet racks with an economical, customisable and replaceable passive dissipative device. The discussed results, based on nonlinear dynamic analyses, demonstrate the applicability of such a device able to increase the structural performance in terms of energy dissipation, residual displacement and interstorey drift.