Seismic fragility assessment of high-rise stacks in oil refineries

The seismic fragility is assessed for typical high-rise stacks encountered in 17 oil refineries, namely process towers, chimneys, and flares. Models of varying 18 complexity were developed for the structures of interest, attempting to balance 19 computational complexity and accuracy regarding the structural dynamic and strength 20 properties. The models were utilized along with a set of hazard-consistent ground 21 motions for evaluating the seismic demands through incremental dynamic analysis. 22 Demand/capacity-related uncertainties were explicitly accounted for in the proposed 23 framework. Damage states were defined for each of the examined structure considering 24 characteristic serviceability and ultimate limit states. Τhe proposed resource-efficient 25 roadmap for the analytical seismic fragility assessment of typical high-rise stacks, as 26 well as the findings of the presented research work are available to be exploited in 27 seismic risk assessment studies of oil refineries.