Investigation of Seismic Behavior of Pallet Rack Frames

One of the most significant uses of cold-formed members is for steel storage racking structures, such as pallet, drive in, and drive through racking systems. In the current competitive industry, pallets and storage racks may support heavy loads that have the potential to injure workers and damage equipment if the pallets and racks fail and loads fall. Hence, storage racks must remain structurally sound. Additionally, when subjected to earthquake loading, they can exhibit very large transverse displacement. In spite of their complexity, racks are able to carry heavy loads, though they are designed as lightly as possible, and industries often rely on 3-dimensional Finite Element Analysis to achieve this objective. This study, presents a Finite Element model of a conventional rack structure modeled using the commercial software SAP2000. In order to investigate the seismic behaviour of rack frames under real earthquake ground motions, the Time History Analysis was performed with rigid, semi-rigid and pinned connections.