Seismic characterization of cold formed steel pallet racks

Storage racks are used worldwide in industries and commercial outlets due to the advantage of lighter, faster erection and easy alteration of pallet level as required. The studies to understand the behaviour of cold formed steel pallet racks, under seismic action is one of the emerging area of research. The rack consists of perforated uprights and beams with hook-in end connector, which enables the floor height adjustments. The dynamic characteristics of these racks are not well established. This paper presents the dynamic characteristics of 3-D single bay two storey pallet rack system with hook-in end connectors, which is tested on shake table. The sweep sine test and El Centro earthquake acceleration is used to evaluate the seismic performance of the cold formed steel pallet racks. Also an attempt is made to evaluate the realistic dynamic characteristics by using STAAD Pro software. Modal analysis is performed by incorporating the effective moment of inertia of the upright, which considers the effect of presence of perforations and rotational stiffness of the beam-to-upright connection to determine the realistic fundamental frequency of pallet racks, which is required for carrying out the seismic design. Finite element model of the perforated upright section has been developed as a cantilever beam through which effective moment of inertia is evaluated. The stiffness of the hook-in connector is taken from the previous study by Prabha et al. (2010). The results from modal analysis are in good agreement with the respective experimental results.