An application case study conducted by Gruppo Ingegneria Torino was published on Ingenio, with reference to an intervention of seismic upgrading of an industrial building for a leading company at national level.
The safety of existing buildings against seismic action is a much debated issue, as the Italian building heritage is largely made up of buildings built after World War II following design practices far away from today’s structural concepts.
This contribution illustrates the methodological approach adopted for the seismic upgrading of an existing reinforced concrete building, showing how the tools used have enhanced the results obtained regarding the current structural situation of the same and at the same time have allowed the subsequent definition of design solutions aimed at the mitigation of seismic risk, in accordance with all the provisions of the current regulatory instruments in force. In particular, it concerns the company canteen of an industrial plant in the Puglia area.
In addition to purely structural interventions, the seismic upgrading activity was an opportunity to extend the intervention also to an extraordinary maintenance intended for the remaking of various works of a building and plant engineering nature.
The type of intervention studied required a study of the interferences present in the areas of intervention (white and black water disposal networks, fire prevention network, gas network and inspection tunnels) and their resolution, also by virtue of the request to keep the functionality of the building operational and with a view to the subsequent and definitive arrangement of the external areas. The structural design solution therefore envisaged the construction of reinforced concrete partitions arranged in two orthogonal directions along the four fronts of the building which, by means of reinforced concrete elements and metal hinge connections, are anchored to the existing columns at the level of each horizon in order to concentrate and dissipate the corresponding forces of inertia in the seismic phase on these alignments.
Gruppo Ingegneria Torino thanks the software house CDM DOLMEN for the important theoretical contribution given during the study of simulated seismic dynamics and their subsequent application to structural reality.