Geometrically Nonlinear Analysis of Steel Storage Racks Submitted To Earthquake Loading

Steel storage racks are light and flexible structures. When submitted to earthquake loading, they can exhibit very large transverse displacements and are thus prone to significant consequences of second-order geometrical effects. In the context of the drafting of European recommendations for the design of steel pallet racks for their seismic resistance, this paper presents a parameter study comparing the various methods commonly used in practice for analyzing the seismic structural behavior of racks (i.e. "modal response spectrum analysis" and "lateral force method analysis") as well as the different ways to account for geometrically nonlinear effects in these conventional methods of analysis in the case of structures designed for low ductility.