Seismic Analysis of Oil Refinery Structures, Part 1 - Experimental and Analytical Studies of Tall Columns

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: Four tall columns at the Richmond Refinery of the Standard Oil Company were investigated in detail. These columns are typical of tall refinery columns in general, and they were selected because they had various heights and configurations. On-site measurements of the behavior of these columns were made under ambient and forced-motion conditions. Suitable test procedures and measurement techniques were developed in the course of the work. Natural frequencies, mode shapes, and damping characteristics were determined from the power spectral density function analysis of the measurements. The platforms, reboilers, and other elements attached to the columns have a significant effect on some of the mode shapes. Damping is relatively small in these structures, generally being 1% of critical damping or less at the levels of vibration used in the tests. The tall columns were modeled mathematically using beam theory, shell theory, and the finite-element method. A major difficulty is presented by the inclusion of the effects of platforms, reboilers, ladders, and the like. Nevertheless, natural frequencies and mode shapes were calculated and compared with the results of the field measurements. All of the results are in reasonably good agreement, but given its simplicity and other advantages, beam theory is concluded to be the most practical approach for the analysis of these tall columns.

Type of resource	text
Date created	September 1978

Related Publication	Scholl, RE, Czarnecki, RM, Kircher, CA, Shah, HC and Gere, JM. (1978). Seismic Analysis of Oil Refinery Structures, Part II - Evaluation of Seismic Design Criteria. John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Center Technical Report 32. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: http://purl.stanford.edu/zz855yq1681
Related item	Title John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Center
Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/cj676tv9437

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Preferred Citation: Kircher, CA, Czarnecki, RM, Scholl, RE, Shah, HC and Gere, JM. (1978). Seismic Analysis of Oil Refinery Structures, Part 1 - Experimental and Analytical Studies of Tall Columns. John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Center Technical Report 31. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: http://purl.stanford.edu/cj676tv9437

John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Center Technical Report Series

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