Numerical assessment of seismic retrofit interventions on a long-span precast industrial building

Most of the industrial buildings of the Italian territory is characterised by precast concrete frame structures. Furthermore, subsequent reviews of the Italian seismic design code updated the classification of most industrialized areas in Italy as seismically active. Therefore, a consistent part of the industrial built heritage may be deemed to be seismically inefficient according to current standards, potentially highlighting issues concerning flexural performance of columns and support connections of both horizontal members and cladding panels. This paper investigates a seismically retrofitted benchmark structure representative of monostorey industrial buildings characterised by large height and structural grids. Rational retrofit solutions of increasing impact and efficiency are presented and implemented into a structural model explicitly including not only structural members, but also cladding panels and connections characterised by non-linear constitutive laws. The beneficial impact of the adopted seismic retrofit strategies is analysed through modal and non-linear static analysis.