Drive-In Steel Storage Racks. II: Reliability-Based Design for Forklift Truck Impact
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VIEW THE ORIGINAL ARTICLEPublication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 138, Issue 2
Abstract
Steel drive-in racks are susceptible to structural failure from accidental impact by operating forklift trucks. Under impact, the upright bends and the supported pallets may drop through the rack to cause structural collapse if the bay opening exceeds the pallet bearing width. This drop-through limit state has not been considered in existing rack design standards. This paper proposes a simple equation to calculate the equivalent static impact force based on recent tests and nonlinear dynamic analysis of drive-in steel racks. An impact load factor is developed on the basis of a structural reliability assessment, taking into account the uncertain nature of the impact force, structural resistance, and models used in structural analysis. In design practice, the bay opening is determined from factored impact loads and is not to exceed specified limits.
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Acknowledgments
This research is supported by Australian Research Council under Discovery Project Grant ARCDP0559983. This support is gratefully acknowledged. The authors would like to thank Dr. Murray Clarke and Dr. Lip Teh for their valuable comments.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 138 • Issue 2 • February 2012
Pages: 148 - 156
Copyright
© 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 22, 2010
Accepted: May 23, 2011
Published online: May 25, 2011
Published in print: Feb 1, 2012
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