Damage Level Matrix and Damage Curves for Buildings in Refineries and Petrochemical Facilities

Damage Level Matrix and Damage Curves for Buildings in Petrochemical Facilities

One important component of a Facility Siting Study is the prediction of building response due to blast loading. Commonly used building damage criteria for siting studies are the ones published in ASCE's ?Design of Blast Resistant Buildings in Petrochemical Facilities, First (1997) and Second (2010) Editions? and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Protective Design Center Technical Report (PDC-TR 06-08, 2008). The 2010 Edition of the ASCE book has similar response criteria as the PDC-TR, however no specific guidance is provided how to calculate Building Damage Level using the Component Damage Levels provided in the book. PDC-TR provides a matrix to relate component damage to building damage. Unfortunately, this matrix can result in very conservative estimates of the building damage level for steel buildings with weak sidings like light-gage corrugated metal panels or transite panels which are common in the petrochemical and chemical facilities. This first part of this paper discusses methods to relate component damage levels to building damage levels for these types of buildings and hence achieve reasonable results for specific building types that are common in petrochemical and chemical facilities.

Building damage curves (pressure-impulse) diagrams are commonly used in facility siting studies for refineries, and petrochemical and chemical facilities. The second part of this paper presents a set of building damage curves that were created based on analytical methods and extensive experience of the author on blast response of typical facility buildings. Analytical curves are based on the new damage matrix mentioned in the first part of this paper. The paper also discusses non-structural hazards and other considerations when evaluation plant buildings under blast loads.