Uncertainties in the structural design of the high‐bay cold storage warehouses

The paper presents the structural analysis and critical evaluation of the modelling process of a high‐bay cold storage warehouse structure, which is a clad rack structure, composed of cold‐formed steel members, with different profile shapes and thicknesses. A major issue of the global structural analyses of these types of steel structures is the mixed application of design rules since the design is governed by racking structural rules, seismic design rules and cold‐formed steel design rules. To manage this problem, the structure's spatial model was divided into characteristic partial models, and spring supports were used to make the behavior of the partial models more realistic. The influence of the gravity loads (self‐weight, show), horizontal loads (wind and seismic action), geometrical imperfections, and loads induced by the temperature variation on the structure was investigated in the structural design. Even the wind actions resulted as dominant, some uncertainties related to the seismic analysis of these structures are presented in the paper.